Ing. Josef Lexa

* 1936

  • "What was worse was that they set it [the cottage in Temelínec] on fire, that they demolished it. My mother wanted to go there. I didn't want to go with her, but she wanted to. We arrived and it was already burnt down. They stole some of the better stuff there. Gates. Doors. They took a pump from the well and so on. We had been building sheds before that. We made them from bricks from Týnec, and I still have some. They were very solid, so solid that even in the winter, the frost didn’t affect them. Later, I used it to feed the chickens. They tore it down and took it away."

  • "They wanted to make a cooperative there [in Temelínec]. They needed the small ones, the small farmers, to go there. My father didn't want to go there. He didn't give them any application. He gave it to them only when there were more of them, when some of the farmers were already there. So he didn't give it until quite late. When he had to. It was said that it would be difficult for him there, that they would give him something else somewhere else [they would change his field]. They would give him what was neglected. Because the fields that the farmers didn't cultivate, those were overgrown. They didn't produce much there because they didn't put fertilizer there, they didn't have the money."

  • "Then a whole division of German soldiers suddenly arrived in Temelín when the uprising was already in Prague. We were already going there. Somehow the national anthem was being sung, so we went there to see. The Germans were lying all over Temelin. There were ponds, it was dry, it was warm. They had their cars aside and they had lunch there. We went there, they didn't do anything to us. Nothing. They just didn't notice us and we didn't notice them. But at school, as there were national guests. The women. If they said anything to them there, they told them to go away. They ran. They told the soldiers they were chasing them away. So the commander said he was going to have the village burned down or something. Some people fled into the forest, others were hidden. Now there were some Czech partisans like the people from the village. About four of them had something and went to disarm the Germans. Of course they didn't leave. They took them right away, they were going to shoot them. One woman begged the commander not to shoot, she knelt down in front of him. So they put them in the post office, there was a gendarmerie there. The Czechs were afraid that something would be done to them. But the Americans were already in Vodnany. They were, as Chechenice was, as the railway was, they had a demarcation line there. So they were called there to come and disarm the Germans. They couldn't get through. Somehow for a long time they were calling from the post office there. It took a long time. Then they [the Americans] said they couldn't go there, that the Russians would be there. Then someone went there on a motorcycle to convince them. The commander somehow took it and sent the Americans there. It was Sunday, about ten o'clock two small tanks on wheels, about two trucks and about 15 Americans arrived. But they were some Czechs, a lot of them could speak Czech. They disarmed the Germans. The Germans gave in, I guess they guaranteed them that they could go to Vodnany. So they disarmed them all. There was a pile of those weapons. They put it on the cars. We boys used to fly there. The Americans loaded it up and left again. The Germans took off."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Nové Hodějovice u Českých Budějovic, 22.04.2022

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    duration: 02:04:57
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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    Nové Hodějovice u Českých Budějovic, 24.05.2022

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    duration: 01:19:04
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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    České Budějovice, 06.05.2024

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    duration: 01:28:49
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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    České Budějovice, 30.05.2024

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    duration: 01:19:46
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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At first they didn’t believe there would be a nuke

Josef Lexa, 1960
Josef Lexa, 1960
photo: Archive of the witness

Josef Lexa was born as an only child on 31 March 1936 to Josef and Růžena Lexa. The family owned a small farm (6 ha) in the village of Temelínec, now a defunct village. The Lexa farm flourished. During the war they secretly supplied food to relatives in České Budějovice and Týn nad Vltavou. In May 1945, the witness witnessed the dramatic end of the war in Temelín. His parents were not members of the Communist Party. When the JZD (Unified agriculture cooperative) in Temelínec was started in the early 1950s, father did not want to join the cooperative. He was one of the last to apply under pressure. After graduating from the secondary school in Týn, he entered the Czech Technical University, but he was not interested in studying geodesy. After a year he transferred to the agricultural college, which he graduated from in 1960. During his studies he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. After the war, he started working at the agricultural department of the Agricultural Inspectorate in České Budějovice. As an agricultural economist, he managed first the JZD and then the state farms (Hluboká nad Vltavou, České Budějovice, Nové Hrady and Trhové Sviny). He describes in detail the state of Czechoslovak agriculture in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968 he signed the Two Thousand Words manifesto, for which he was later expelled from the Communist Party. He could have stayed at the ONV (Regional National Committee), but it was a future without the possibility of any career advancement. When the construction of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant (JETE) began in the 1980s, Růžena and Josef Lex had to move out of Temelín. Their house was later razed to the ground. After 1989, he became the director of the České Budějovice branch of the Czech Statistical Office. All democratic elections were held under his supervision until his retirement in 2000. Josef Lexa lived in 2024 in Nové Hodějovice near České Budějovice.