A war must never be repeated
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Richard Drábek was born on the 17th January of 1929 as the seventh child of Františka Drábková, née Nováková, and Richard Drábek. His parents were farmers. Richard Drábek’s neighbour snitched on him because of a clandestine stash of grain. In 1942, he was sentenced as an economical war criminal, saboteur and enemy of the people for seven years in prison and he was sent to a prison in Brieg in Poland. He died after two years there. Before his death, he sent several letters to his family. In one of those, he expressed his wish that the farm would be taken over by Richard, the youngest son. Richard Drábek respected the wish of his father but his aim was disturbed by the collectivisation in 1948. In 1950, he unknowingly supplied grain infected by weevils to the co-op and consequently, he was sentenced for an alleged sabotage for 18 months of forced labour in the forced labour camp Prokop by Horní Slavkov. In 1952, he worked in cement works in Hranice and in a lime kiln in Přerov. Shortly after that, he was conscripted for the compulsory military service. At first, he served with the Signal Corps. After the platoon commander found out that Richard Drábek had been imprisoned, he was transferred to the Auxiliary Technical Batallion to Komárno in Slovakia. After he left the army in 1954, he worked in agriculture but in 1956 he surrendered the field to the co-op and started working in Ingstav Brno construction company on a site in Přerov where a water tank was being built. In 1957 he married Ludmila Nováková and they had two children, a son Richard and a daughter Ludmila. In 1960, he got a job in Rudý Říjen (Red October) mine in Ostrava where he stayed for almost 25 years until 1984. At the end of the 1980’s, his daughter emigrated to the United States where she changed her name to Adrianne. Her house which Richard Drábek had personally built for her was confiscated by the state and the family never got it back. Richard Drábek still lives in Vinary where was born, he spends his time in his workshop or painting landscapes inspired by the surrounding countryside. Some of them were shown on an exhibition in Přerov. He is the chronicler of Vinary.
