Jan Fiala

* 1943

  • "I served at PTP. At that time, it was already called the road army. For two years, I didn't know what a firearm was. We had very different tasks - to build bridges, for example, we were in Bratislava for a few months. But I'm not complaining, because the commander under whom I served in Lázně Bohdaneč, was a very sensible guy and his wife taught my wife at school. "

  • "When they returned it, we had to win or negotiate a loan, in total this brick factory was almost 70 million. We had to have our own construction built, it was built by Mostárna Hustopeče because we found out they were the most reasonable in terms of price. Then the whole brick factory had to be built. And the first brick fell out of it on July 20, 1995. Well, we've been making bricks ever since. ”

  • "I was not allowed to go to any school, because I had a grandfather who had been building houses in Prague since the First Republic and was making bricks here in the brick factory."- "Did your grandfather, mom or dad tell you anything more about your family history?" - "Well, not my grandfather, because my grandfather died a year before I was born and my parents said that he did it by building a house in Prague, and immediately selling it to have money to build another house, that's how he did it, as long as he lived. And he made bricks here in the brick factory in Štěrboholy. "

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    Praha, 15.10.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 30:40
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Grandfather was satisfied

Jan Fiala as a soldier
Jan Fiala as a soldier
photo: archiv pamětníka

Jan Fiala was born on October 16, 1943, in Prague. His grandfather founded a brick factory in Štěrboholy and died a year before Jan’s birth. The brick factory was nationalized in 1952 and the witness, as a son of a former family of entrepreneurs, was not allowed to study. He served in the Auxiliary Technical Battalion. After the war, he married and moved to Nymburk, where he worked on the district national committee and later in the waterworks. After the Velvet Revolution, he got the family brick factory back and he and his wife decided to build it and put it back into operation. He still works in the brick factory in Štěrboholy.