I and my brother watched the bustle in the village square and the Germans escaping the front line
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Jan Odstrčil was born on the 30th of August 1937 in the village of Svébohov in the area of Šumperk. He comes from seven children, both sisters died shortly after they were born, so he spent his childhood in his native home with his four brothers - Josef, Boleslav, Hynek and Oldřich. His mother Jindřiška, née Valíková worked in the field, his father Josef worked as a workman in a stone pit. However, his father Josef did not have a job during the time of German occupation of the border areas. The Nazis employed him in Ústí nad Labem which is 250 kilometres away and they saw each other only from time to time during the war. As a little boy, Jan Odstrčil witnessed several partisan and anti-partisan operations during World War II, some of his relatives were also resistance fighters. Even today, he still remembers liberation by the Soviet army which was connected with shelling of Svébohov and casualties that were also in his family. He studied at boarding vocational school in Mohelnice after war and he stayed there afterwards to work as a milling machine operator in Moravian Electrical Plants (the MEZ company). From there, he was at his own request transferred to nearer Postřelmov and he worked for the MEZ company till his retirement. He joined an automotive troop in Čáslav as a Tatra 111 driver in 1956. A cooperative was established in Svébohov one year after he joined the military service and the family lost their farm owing to collectivization. Having finished his military service, he returned to work for the MEZ company where he met his future wife Marie Bednářová. The wedding took place in 1962 and they raised daughters Kateřina and Marie together. He had to participate in mandatory military trainings every two years between 1964 and 1970, he was taking part in one of them during the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968. He took part in strikes in the MEZ company in November 1989. Jan Odstrčil and his wife lived in the village of Jedlí near to his native Svébohov in the time of shooting (in 2020).
