"I was fired without notice from the starch factory, where I also had a part-time job, by order of the prosecutor, so I had to leave, too, after a snack. They just bullied me and the Brož family from all sides. "
"Dad was the last one to sign, but I didn't sign it, I was to start the military service, so we were expelled three days later. The inventory checklist hadn´t been made yet, so we didn't even have to put the twenty percent contribution into the cooperative farm. After being kicked out of school and all the other things, I felt so disgusted that I started farming with my dad."
"They took away three threshers in Radňov. From the Hojer, Kubát and Brož families. So you know what it was like when the three threshers had been gone and everyone had to accomplish the deliveries anyway. Hojer, he had been meant to be moved out, so he was already, as they say, written off, he was preparing slowly to move out. It didn't happen until the year 1951, but it was only just, because three signatures were needed. There were Bolech, Kadlec and Brož-a road mender [coincidence of names], the last one didn't want to sign it, but then he signed it, who signed for Hanour to move out, no one has known until today. Hojer was moved out on February 23, 1953, and Hanour on May 7, 1953. "
"In 1951, there was the forced purchase of agricultural machinery, so they took away our engine, press, threshing machine. We had already threshed three loads of rye. And then came a purchasing officer, the commissioner, and said that we were to complete the delivery within forty-eight hours. Dad sat on a motorcycle, rode to Studénka to borrow a thresher from his brother-in-law, but they were just threshing there, so he borrowed an older type of machine from Kubát from Studénka, and the next day we used it for threshing and we accomplished the delivery. Well, those were terrible years, because when the machines were taken away from you during the harvest time, you know what it must have been like. “
"I came back from the military service and started farming on land that was exchanged many times. They changed our land a total of seventeen times. When you think about it, it's three times a year. "
František Brož was born on January 17, 1939, and spent his childhood on a family farm in Radňov. He attended school in Květinov and an upper primary school in Lípa. When he was applying for admission to the agricultural school in Humpolec in 1953, he was not accepted because of his “bad” class background. During forced collectivization, his whole family refused to join an agricultural cooperative farm. The family were deprived of the agricultural machinery and, in total, their pieces of land were exchanged seventeen times. Nevertherless, František Brož remained the only private farmer in the Havlíčkův Brod region throughout the communist era. After 1989, he had several monuments built and memorial plaques made to commemorate communist injustice. At the time of recording his story he was living with his wife in Květinov (November 2019).
L. Horní and R. Brož (father) in 1961 at the Ministery of Agriculture in Prague where they went to negotiate about agricultural and technical soil treatment. Everything was promised but nothing was fulfilled.
L. Horní and R. Brož (father) in 1961 at the Ministery of Agriculture in Prague where they went to negotiate about agricultural and technical soil treatment. Everything was promised but nothing was fulfilled.
The Brož Family (Marie, the second wife of Rudolf Brož, is in the middle, the children from his previous marriage on the left and František Brož on the right)
The Brož Family (Marie, the second wife of Rudolf Brož, is in the middle, the children from his previous marriage on the left and František Brož on the right)
The family Hojer´s farm in Radňov in the first half of 20th century. Photo from the Hojer´s personal archive, copied from the book by Růžička, Miloslav: Vyhnanci - Akce "Kulak", zločin proti lidskosti! (Exiles - Action "Kulak", crime against humanity)
The family Hojer´s farm in Radňov in the first half of 20th century. Photo from the Hojer´s personal archive, copied from the book by Růžička, Miloslav: Vyhnanci - Akce "Kulak", zločin proti lidskosti! (Exiles - Action "Kulak", crime against humanity)
