Jaroslav Česák

* 1930

  • “My parents were simply attached to their land. Since we had been working on our land for centuries, we had a deep bond to it. Even today, whenever I can, as an eighty-three-year old, I try to work on the sixteen hectares which were left to me, or which I had regained by inheriting this house. But I do not harvest anymore, I leave the harvest to the young ones. But until now I had ten cows and I grazed them.”

  • “A draft order came and in the evening I thus boarded the train. I had fed the cattle in the afternoon and in the evening I got on the train here in Hradec Králové — and on the train car there was a sign saying in rhyme: ‘All horses go to Mimoň.’ My draft order was for Mimoň. We went there, we spent the night in some pub in Liberec and early in the morning we went by train to Mimoň. They picked us up in the train station there and then the regular procedures started, they shaved our hair, and so on. And for the whole time I still thought that we were in a combat unit.”

  • “Suddenly they woke us up in the middle of the night because an old colonel – he was an old geezer – arrived there for an inspection and all soldiers had to stand attention. At night. I slept so soundly that I missed the roll call and only when the non-commissioned officers searched the rooms, they found me and made me get out. I had to report to the old geezer and I said: ‘Comrade colonel, I work in a shock brigade which fulfills 130% of the plan and I was so tired when I returned from my shift that I fell asleep.’ The old geezer sent me back to sleep. I could thus use it as a terrific excuse, because all the other guys who didn’t get tired so much had to go for the morning exercise.”

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    Hradec Králové, 02.11.2013

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I work in the shock brigade – that was my excuse

Jaroslav Česák was born May 20, 1930 into an old farming family in Hradec Králové. He was used to hard work in the field since his early childhood and after completing the elementary school he therefore fully took over the family farm. Jaroslav kept working on the farm until 1951 when he was drafted to the Auxiliary Technical Battalions. He began his military service in Mimoň and then he was transferred to Karviná to work in the coal mine Ludvík. He joined the group no. 733 but since his parents were already old and Jaroslav needed to send money to them, he transferred to the shock brigade unit no. 3731. While he was in the Auxiliary Technical Battalions, he also experienced the currency reform and he was even interrogated by the counter-intelligence for allegedly speaking against the political regime. In 1953 he became a civilian again and he returned to Hradec Králové and began working in the local Unified Agricultural Cooperative there. At present (2015) he lives in Hradec Králové.