Jaroslav Jung

* 1946

  • "When I was little, we still had a cow after the war. So this Mr. Cendrik came and he took our cow. The last cow in the barn, and my father said, 'If you want the cow, take it, may the Devil take both you and the cow.' And after fourteen years, this Mr. Pavlišín came and asked if Dad knew Mr. Cendrik. Dad said, 'Oh, yeah, he took the last cow out of my barn.' Mr. Pavlišín replied, 'I heard he was doing bad things here. He's not alive anymore, he was taking the cows out to graze and the cow would just impale him.'”

  • "There were certain customs officers who even had my aunt undressed. It was before Christmas, she was disabled, she had a hump. And it was before Christmas, she had this tracksuit trousers wrapped around her as a present for me, and of course they made her undress, and that's how they treated our people. Well they had either a permanent pass or just a one-time pass."

  • "Since the war was over and there was no school in Slané, just to make it clear, my parents were asking themselves what the children would become, which school to put them in, there was no school yet, until the Polish school was created. My mother had a sister, my aunt Anezka, she lived in Pavlišov in Bohemia and she also asked her what would become of the children, they would turn into street urchins or such. „I'll take them to my place in Pavlišov.“ So she took them there. And they went to elementary schools in Pavlišov and later in in Poříčí. And what happened was, soon the border, was established, there was this ploughed soil,, then they would harrow it and the division was complete. Me and my parents in Poland and my brother and sister with Auntie Anežka in Pavlišov."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Velké Poříčí, 18.04.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 01:37:25
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

Customs officers forced his aunt to strip to find hidden Christmas presents

Jaroslav Jung as a 25 years old, 1971
Jaroslav Jung as a 25 years old, 1971
photo: Archiv pamětníka

Jaroslav Jung was born on December 17, 1946 in the village of Slané in Kladsko as a descendant of the original inhabitants of Český Koutek. After the war, his parents faced a wave of new, mostly Polish settlers who took over the properties of the original inhabitants. Although the family kept the house, they lost their cattle. Since there was no school in the area after the war, the two siblings of the witness went to live with their aunt in Bohemia so as not to neglect their schooling. However, the impassable Czech-Polish border soon came into existence and the children remained in Bohemia while their parents stayed in Poland. Only a few years later were they allowed to visit their parents with a pass, but the customs officials created a number of humiliating situations for them and their aunt. The rest of the family left for the Czech Republic in 1963. They had to leave their house without compensation. Jaroslav Jung trained as a locksmith at MEZ Náchod and spent his entire working career there. After his retirement, he devoted himself to civic activities, such as the settlement committee of the town of Náchod, the automobile club, the gardeners’ association, and guiding at St. Lawrence Church. He speaks Polish, Czech and German, which later facilitated his work in the Czech-Polish-German Friendship Association. In 2023 he lived in Náchod.