PaedDr. Colonel Antonín Strachota

"When the nationalization happened, father still headed the soda factory for some time. Until the year 1953 it was still with us. Simultaneously the second soda factory was also nationalized, Hrbáčkova, which was in Paseky, and the manufacturing was later moved there. With us, it was ironic, from the main manufacturing part - where there is the blackened glass, there was red cloth there, chairs were put - paradoxically it became an agitation center of the KSČ. Horrifying. After three years they realized, that it was stupid idea, and so they made this decision, and again resumed production. Production continued until the year 1961, then there was a repair shop for soda manufacturing machinery there, and from the year 1964 it was taken over in course of some delimitations, as was the norm, by the District Construction Company. Tinsmiths, electricians, plumbers, etc. In the year 1989, I managed to get the property back during restitution. The whole family, I got an eighth, but I had to pay back everyone gradually, and I got the property to its present state. Now I am not running production of soda waters, but it is serving. Because I did not have sufficient support in the family to restart production, then for now I am doing business in the form of the stupidest business, in the form of renting it out. As pertains to the development of my grandfather's life after the year 48, until the year 1953, father still headed the soda factory, after he absolutely did not identify with it. The whole family was still employed, and when father left it, the others basically left as well. The irony of fate is that of course grandfather had some debt for the soda machinery, and he was told, that basically he made the debt on his own, that despite the fact that they are nationalized, he will still have to finish paying it. And so grandfather gradually really did pay it back. Probably in the year 1966 or 1967 he finished paying for all of it and kept on working, because he was an honest working person, as hardworking as the whole family. Grandmother always told - and she quoted, without knowing it, that she was quoting Mr. President Masaryk - that our salvation lies in work and knowledge. That was basically her kind of creed, when we had some sort of discussion. Grandfather with father said, that systematic work leads us to results and it was interpreted like this."

"And then came the year 1939, the Germans. Grandfather had some problems. In the family there is gossip that one time the Gestapo came and had our uncle. There was some slapping involved. It was because the businessmen in Zlín basically supported the Jewish women who were imprisoned where the court is nowadays, back then it was a temporary prison. Those girls were imprisoned there and the businessmen from Zlín made finances available to them. Across the street there was a hotel, not a hotel, but the sweets shop Malota, that was the heart of Zlín, today it is the reconstructed Modus. They always played there, opened the windows. They also gave them some food, so that they would have an easier time in that prison environment. So that they could wait it out somehow. Well and then some good soul probably snitched, and that was the reaction of the Gestapo. The people who had somehow donated to it were threatened and the family was afraid, if grandfather would be sent somewhere. Fortunately nothing came of it, it somehow quietened down. They waited out the war and then dove fully back into doing business."