"There were some good ones, smart officers, but a lot of illiterates, Cossacks. They took my father's best mare, a young one. He pulled a machine gun on him, he had to give her to them. That was after the war, they had no right to do that. Dad thought he wouldn't survive. The farmers had their animals and this was..., she didn't want to go. He stabbed her with his spurs like that and dragged her away. She had no value in life, she was young. We always had three horses and foals. He took the best of them, I don't know why!"
"This Vendsdorf was good, but she married, this Gerta, an SS man who murdered people in Auschwitz, and he was dangerous for the village. That's where they used to burn the rapeseed oil in that village, it was like sniffing, and he used to come in the evening and sniff all the time. That always saved the old woman here. She said, leave it alone! That was a concentration camp. It was roasted, the oilseed rape. It was the oil, the real oil, and it was pressed, and then it was boiled."
"There were smart people in that village, no fools. When the Germans would come, it was called a review, they would go to the mayor there, Mr. Zach, a neighbor, would worked as the mayor. They treated them there, and in the meantime they had a maid there, she went round the houses, that there was an inspection. So these people chicken in a bag, put it on some balks. There it was put into some kind of a grid, and when they left, it was put back again. That was a certain kind that you were allowed to grow or breed and you couldn't have any more. That kind of grain, if they found it, that kind of poppy, if they found it - that was a concentration camp. So here they had this hut, they had a bad dog in there, and under the dog was a bag of poppies, and the poppies were lying on top of it, and the Germans never looked in there."
František Chlistovský was born on 27 April 1934 into a family of landowners. He lived his whole life in a picturesque rural environment. The family owned one of the largest estates in the village of Žiňánky in the Benešov region. The carefree childhood full of games in the village square was cut short by the Second World War. Hiding food from German checkings, fear of denunciation from local Germans or the sudden “disappearance” of Jewish inhabitants. This was the new reality of life in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. František Chlistovský experienced another tense moment in the spring of 1945, when he saw the death train pass by. The image of the impoverished concentration camp prisoners riding on open wagons through Benesov will never leave his mind for the rest of his life. The liberation by the Red Army was perceived by the inhabitants of Žiňánky with mixed feelings. Some soldiers did not treat the locals as liberators, but as conquerors. The change of political course in 1948 and the subsequent collectivisation of agriculture was hard for the Chlistovsky family. However, after pressure from the communist authorities, they had to give in. František Chlistovský joined the JZD (united agricultural cooperative), where the family farm, cattle and machinery were transferred. Nevertheless, he did not lose his enthusiasm for agricultural work and his love for the land. The farm was returned to the family after 1989 as part of restitution. In 2024, he enjoyed a well-deserved retirement and pursued his beloved gardening.
