When they tried to take our horses, the thieves came with a gendarme
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Josef Kubný was born on 28th August 1946 in Kobeřice in the Hlučín region. His father František had to enlist in the Wehrmacht during the war and served in Finland. The family farmed twelve hectares of land, raised cattle and breeding horses. Like his brother Hubert, six years older, he learned to farm from childhood. Under his father’s supervision, he rode in a wagon with horses. He witnessed the collectivisation of agriculture in the Hlučín region. The family gradually lost their fields and cattle. In the spring of 1957, he was there when his father defended his horses with a pitchfork in his hands. A few weeks after this event, Josef’s family house burned down. The authorities refused to allow the Kubny family to build a new building, so mother joined the cooperative. The father did not. Josef was not allowed to train as a bricklayer, he had to work in the cooperative. His brother was not allowed to be a butcher. In 1967, Josef Kubný managed to leave the cooperative. He then worked as a driver for Investment and Industrial Construction until his retirement. At the time of filming (2024) he lived in Kobeřice.
