„Once I dared to say: ‘Comrade Commander I have a remark to make. The order has been prolonged till eleven a clock pm. You know that we get up at four o´clock in the morning. How can we work and fulfil the standards?‘ He started to shout saying: ‘Horák, I´ll give you the opportunity to sleep! I will shut you up every day!‘ The most awkward thing for me was that when it ended, my colleagues from Auxiliary technical battalion laughed at me and told me: ‘Mate, don’t you know it? The idiots will treat us even worse now!‘ Well, it happened on Monday, nothing happened the following they, they did not shut me up, neither they did the third and the fourth day. And it was my turn on Sunday. We were allowed to go out once a month and it was my turn. I told myself: ‘What should I do? Should I go to see him or not?‘ Well he did not lock me up, everything was all right, so I went to see him and he told me: ‘Horák, I promised you that I would lock you up but I was thinking about what you had said to me. You know the fulfilment of standards is important. I will sign you the permit.‘ Of course, it dawned on him, because they probably got extra money for the results in the building site."
“So, the February arrived and some people from the Ministry of Industry appeared in our house on the 1st of December 1948 and they told to my father: ‘Look, Mr. Horák, there is a danger that you could misuse your scrap metal shop to supply iron and steel works. It was decided that your shop would be nationalised.‘ They wrote down a report with him, I even have a copy here, they confiscated, counted and loaded everything; they blocked his account in a civic bank. However, my father did not have two accounts, he did not have a private one, so we did not have any money at Christmas in 1948. And I went to school.”
“I was summoned to a screening and the first question was: ‘Do you agree with the entrance of comradery armies? ‘ I said: ‘I don´t.‘ - ‘How come?‘ - ‘Well, East German army took part in the entrance of armies. I have big memories of Nazi dictatorship. It is completely unacceptable for me.‘ That took the wind out of their sails, even some of the communists did not know what to say. ‘We postpone the screening until half a year.‘ And again. Finally I stayed there, they did not fire me. I worked as a head of a small construction in the enterprise. But they did not increase my salary during all those years – not until 1989.”
“Department of Human Resources looked for people for extramural studies exactly in 1963. A Mr. Pohorský came. I told myself: ‘Well, I´m thirty-three, I may try it. ‘ I had considered it before. He said: ‘I´m glad that I found someone.‘ He came in a week, apologized to me and said: ‘Mr. Horák, unfortunately, the party organization did not recommend you. ‘”
Josef Horák was born on the 20th of February in Krásné in the area of Chrudim. He had a sister Jiřina who was three years younger and a sister Růžena who was five years older. His mother Kateřina (1898–1962) was a housewife, his father Vojtěch (1895–1986) had a small scrap metal shop in Hlinsko where they had moved in 1935. The father naturally influenced his son´s opinions by his patriotic approach. His other example was the Boy Scout Organization that he joined before the war. Josef studied to become a locksmith and studied at Mechanical Engineering School. He also attended a renewed boy scout unit after the war. The Horák family shop was nationalised in 1948 and Josef was called for military service in the Auxiliary technical battalions unit in 1950. He “fought” with a shovel and a pickaxe in Slané and Postoloprty until November 1953. He got married to his wife Marie in 1960 and they had two children in 1963 and 1966. Josef worked as a technician in Elektropraha Hlinsko Enterprise. His “bourgeois origin” accompanied him till the revolution in 1989. He could not study at university; he had the same salary all the time and his children also could not study the fields they chose. He felt sorry that he did not make use of his possibilities and abilities during his productive life because he was not allowed to. Josef Horák died on the 21st of December 2019.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
