A stranger in his own country
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Karel Gruber was born on 13 October 1928 in Prague. His father, a Prague German, worked as a postal officer. His Czech mother took care of the household. His father died in 1929. His father’s brother, then serving as a police officer, became the family’s guardian. Later he became an employee of Ruzyně Airport. After the occupation, he declared himself and Karel as Germans. This gave his mother the status of a loyal Czech living in a German environment. On the basis of this fact, she was able to work in the Protectorate civil service during the war. Karel received his education at a Czech municipal school, a German school and a German grammar school. He became a member of German children’s organizations focused on conscription and military training. In elementary school he attended Jungvolk meetings. At the age of 14, he was accepted into the Hitler Youth. He began his naval training with the Marine Hitler Youth. He was expelled for indiscipline. He joined the Motor Hitler Youth. His uncle was drafted by the army and sent to the Eastern Front. He ended up in Soviet captivity. Karl’s military training culminated in the autumn of 1944 in a Hitler Youth training camp in Moravia. By the end of the war, he was with a combat unit at the Döllersheim training area in Austria. He managed to reach his relatives in the Plzeň region, but they refused to accept him in the post-war atmosphere because of his German nationality and his membership in the Hitler Youth. In a desperate situation, he applied for captivity to the Americans in Plzeň. He suffered from hunger in the camp near Litice Castle, and after a time as a prisoner of war he worked on the reconstruction of the Pilsen brewery and mined coal at the Karviná shaft. From captivity he returned to Tlučná to his mother’s relatives. The Prague apartment was confiscated from the family. He continued his mining work at the Krimich mine in Tlučná. In 1950-1953 he served in the PTP (Technical auxiliary battalions) in Hranice na Moravě. Even after returning from the war, he worked as a miner, but after a few years he fell ill with tuberculosis and could no longer work in a mine. He then earned a living as a driver at the bakery in Tlučná. Karel was investigated by the State Security. They kept a file on him under the code name “Mašinář”. He says he was not interested in politics. Until recently, he used to go to reunions of ex-members of PTP. At the time of the interview (2019), he was living a happy life in Plzeň.
