Anna Straková

A. S.: “For instance, we were fined for not having delivered a hundred litres of milk, or certain amount of potatoes or grain.” Interviewer: “You mean the prescribed delivery quotas?” A. S.: “We would get a fine of let’s say ten thousand Crowns for not delivering five hundred or one thousand kilograms of potatoes. Since we were categorized as ´the village rich,´ our accounts were…” Interviewer: “You mean the money for the fines was being taken directly from your account…” A. S.: “They were taking all our money as payment of these fines, and they also held an auction-sale, allegedly to raise money for our fine. They auctioned our washing-machine that day. I don’t know what the machine brand was…” Her son: “Wasn’t it Zkratka?” A. S: “It was ´Zkrat.´ The executor came and registered our furniture to be confiscated, but they eventually didn’t take it from us. But they did take that washing-machine; a policeman from Zbiroh came to take it away…” The son: “It was the same with the threshing machine, right?” A. S.: “I don’t remember what else we had there… A vehicle with rubber wheels…” The son: “A wagon. And some engines.” A. S.: “And that thing you used for inflating car tires.” The son: “A compressor.” A. S.: “Yes, that’s right.” Interviewer: “They simply took whatever thy needed.” A. S.: “A woman clerk from the district council won the auction for that. And the policeman got hold of the washing-machine.”

A. S.: “The German persecution began. My brother was involved in the underground movement and the Gestapo came to arrest him. The Gestapo took my father and my other brother to the prison in Pilsen, and my brother Václav managed to escape. I had two brothers: Antonín and Vladimír. The Gestapo members searched our farm and we had to stay separated, men and women. Václav was not at home at that time, and so they searched our entire house and everything, and they took my dad and brother away, and two Gestapo men remained in the house with us. They locked themselves in one room, and my mom and I slept in the other.” Interviewer: “And where did your brother go?” A. S.: “He escaped to the forest and he spent the following two days in a ravine there, he covered himself with grass, and then he went to the Hošek’s family. During the time the Gestapo men were in our house, my mom ran away from our room two times in order to let Václav know that the Gestapo was in our house if he tried to come back. I went out once myself during that time. They were looking for photographs and documents. I found them, and therefore at night I took the stuff with me and hid it under the elderberry bush behind our barn.”

Interviewer: “You owned twelve hectares of land…” A. S.: “We had about twelve hectares. They labelled my husband as kulak. When he returned from prison, they ordered him to go to work to the Škoda factory as a non-skilled worker, so that he wouldn’t corrupt the morals of the village people.” Interviewer: “And who was then working on the farm here?” A. S.: “I was here with our children.” Interviewer: “And for how long they sent him there?” A. S.: “Well, indefinitely.” Her son: “He retired afterwards.” A. S.: “I don’t remember it exactly, I think he was there for two or three years. He stayed with some friend of his there, and he was coming to visit us on Saturdays and Sundays.” Interviewer: “The weekends must have been good times for you then.” The son: “The Unified Agricultural Cooperatives have already taken our fields at that time.” A. S.: “The cooperative has taken your father’s property, the fields that belonged to him.” Interviewer: “And did you join the cooperative or not?” A. S.: “It was only me who joined, but I don’t remember when it was.” The son: “Probably in 1959 or 1960.” A. S.: “Before we joined the cooperative, we had leased out some of the fields, and therefore we eventually owned only a hectare or so. We leased out those fields for free, and in exchange the leaseholders were paying for them in grain which we would otherwise be supposed to deliver. I’m talking about the required delivery quotas imposed upon us.” Interviewer: “You mean it wasn’t you who was delivering it, but it was done through the leaseholders of your fields.” A. S.: “The leaseholders made sure that the required quotas were delivered from those fields. But meanwhile we were fined anyway, and our property was auctioned. It was a shameless thing.”

A. S.: “The people who had been with him in the underground movement were communists, and they strove to establish the Unified Agricultural Cooperative here at all costs. They formed a small cooperative at first, but that was not enough for them, and therefore they launched big campaigns aiming to get people to join. And since František didn’t want to, they imprisoned him for one year.” Interviewer: “When was it?” The son: “In 1955. 1954.” A. S.: “It was in 1954, you were four years old and Petr was six. He spent a year there.” Interviewer: “And where was he detained?” A. S.: “At first he was in prison for half a year, it was called Gestapo…” Interviewer: “In Pilsen-Bory.” A.S.: “No, he wasn’t in Bory. It was called StB State Security something… A trial was held half a year later and he was sentenced for not having turned in his friend for the possession of firearms, for having failed to report a criminal activity...” The son: “That friend of his actually only had a gun.” Interviewer: “And who was this friend?” A. S.: “His name was Drábský (?). He worked as an accountant in a savings bank.” (…) Interviewer: “When the court sentenced him to one year in prison, did he spent the entire year there, or did they take into account his detention when he had been awaiting the trial?” A. S.: “No, they didn’t. He had to spend the entire year in prison, and his friend was sentenced to two years.” The son: “But he was released in the middle of his term.” A. S.: “Well, he was, but your dad wasn’t.” Interviewer: “Your husband then served a longer term than he?” A. S.: “They spent the same time in prison. He was to be released on 15th February, and at the end of January our grandma died, she was eighty-two and she had a serious case of asthma and heart problems. She died and my brother Vladimír obtained a doctor’s statement and some confirmation letter from the village council, and he went to the Office of the Chief Prosecutor in Prague to request permission to allow him to come to the funeral.” Interviewer: “And what happened?” A. S.: “Well, my brother submitted the request and they told him to come back in two hours. He was waiting in the hallway and then they told him that it was not advisable to allow František to attend the funeral, and that he ought to take care of the inheritance once he was out of the prison.”