Josef Chrástka

* 1940

  • "I'd like to get back to daddy and his newsstand. Whenever it was the anniversary of TGM or President Beneš, he always decorated the shop window. Whether it was the anniversary of the death or birth of President Masaryk, he always showed it in the window, which the local officials didn't like. They pressured him not to do it. But daddy had his own ideas and wouldn't let them tell him what to do and continued to do it. The pressure on him was considerable, and finally in 1951 they nationalized the newsagent and left him there as a salesman. Of course, they ordered him to sell daily papers and books. He said he was a tobacconist and would only sell tobacco and wouldn't sell their propaganda lies. Eventually they took stock of the shop, and even though the result had been fine every six months before, the final check found a shortfall of 70 000 crowns, they closed the shop and daddy was put on trial."

  • "One of my powerful experiences was when we moved to Volary. There were three bunkers near our little house, they were anti-aircraft machine gun posts and there were empty spent shells scattered all around. Here and there there was a live unexploded grenade. I can still see two children's bodies covered with a sheet, where the children played. They found a grenade that exploded, and one of them had his arms blown off, and they both had serious injuries which they succumbed to."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha

    (audio)
    délka: 02:19:51
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Praha, 06.09.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 02:12:05
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 3

    Aš, 31.07.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 34:04
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 4

    Aš, 31.08.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 43:36
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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Šumava remained my destiny

Josef Chrástka in 1959 when first on duty as an engine driver, Volary
Josef Chrástka in 1959 when first on duty as an engine driver, Volary
zdroj: Witness's archive

Josef Chrástka was born in Trhové Sviny on 19 February 1940. His mother was single, a difficult situation at the time. He was 5 years old when the Allies bombed České Budějovice. He was living with his mother and stepfather in the city‘s quarter of Suché Vrbné. After the liberation, the family found a home in an abandoned and damaged house in Volary. The witness‘s stepfather Ladislav Filek ran a cafeteria and then a newsstand at the train station. The communists took it away after they came to power. Josef Chrástka received his first camera from his father. He trained as a train driver in České Velenice. He started working in Volary, first in a depot workshop, then as a steam locomotive stoker. He drove all types of locomotives, steam and diesel, both freight and passenger trains. He met his future wife on the railroad. He was assigned to Cheb in 1968. This is where he and wife Marie witnessed the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops. He was reassigned to the Rakovník depot in 1986. Having retired, he worked as a guide in the railway museum in Lužná u Rakovníka. He would return to Šumava all his life as an avid photographer. His photographs capture the changes of the Šumava landscape, its charm and poetry. His last exhibition, Šumava Odyssey, was held in Rakovník in 2021. He lived with his wife in Aš in 2023.