I took part in forming the Czechoslovak brigade
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Slávek Přibil was born on 6 September, 1926 in a village of Dežanovec (Dežanovac) in today´s Croatia. This part of Slavonia was colonised by Czech inhabitants in 1920s, and the ancestors of Slávek Přibil came here in 1890 from Slibovice near Nymburk. Little Slávek went to a Czech school in Dežanovec, back then there was a four-year school attendance. On 1 September, 1943 he joined the Czechoslovak partisan battalion following his father´s advice. In November the same year the 1st Czechoslovak brigade was formed near Bučje of the National liberation army of Jan Zizka from Trocnov. During its establishment the brigade had about 500 members and later about 1000; the soldiers spoke Czech and so did the commanders. The witness got into many smaller, but still dangerous fight situations. At the end of war he was offered immigration to Czechoslovakia, but he refused. All his life he worked on his farm. At the break of 1940s and 1950s farmers were forced to enter the cooperatives (zadrug). As the father of Slávek Přibil refused to join, there was a process against him, and he spent two months in prison in Lepoglav and a part of the farm was confiscated from the Přibils. In 1953 coops began to get cancelled and most of his property was returned back to the family. The witness married Vlasta, who came from the Czech family in nearby Horní Daruvar, and had three daughters together.
