Petr Knespl

* 1960

  • "Well, armoured vehicles, tanks, they went through Černá Hora and then they stayed there with us, there is a hill there called Calvary and the Soviet troops stayed there for about eight years and from there they observed the surroundings. So it was going really every day, from morning till evening military vehicles were going there and tanks were going there and there were traffic controllers everywhere, who stayed for example, they were young boys too and it was certainly terrible for them because they dropped them there and nobody noticed them for maybe a week. To bring them some food, drink, that didn't exist, they just left them there, so normally the local people always took pity on them, so they brought them something to eat and they were terribly grateful for that."

  • "They didn't let us go until after we signed an A4 sheet of paper saying we had been treated decently. In order to get home at all, we had to sign it. Otherwise there was this thing that when you lost the trust of the working people, as they say, they put you to work instead of serving the military service. I was working in Prague, building the National Security Corps university in Prague-Lhotka. We worked six days a week, twelve hours a day, then there was cleaning up, there was still a normal military service, and a few guys couldn't stand it mentally either and they were discharged from the army because they were really mentally depressed."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Poděbrady, 01.04.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 42:03
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Apart from psychological terror, beatings were a daily occurrence in the army

Petr Knespl 2019
Petr Knespl 2019
zdroj: Stories of Our Neighbours

Petr Knespl was born on 12 October 1960 in Městec Králové into a family affected by collectivisation. His parents had their family farm confiscated in the settlement of Černá Hora near Dymokury, his father was imprisoned for three years and had to work hard in the mines. In August 1968, the family was overwhelmed by the fear of war, and for many years the occupiers had set up an observation post near the witness´s home. Until the ban in 1970, Petr went to the Scout group in Dymokury, then he refused to join Pioneer organization and later the Socialist Youth Union (SSM). Because of his family circumstances, he was not allowed to study, and he trained as a machine fitter in Ústí nad Orlicí. His uncle emigrated to West Germany in the early 1980s, so Petr spent his compulsory military service in a labour unit. After the military service he joined the cooperative farm in Dymokury as a locksmith. During the Velvet Revolution he distributed anti-communist leaflets in the countryside and participated in several demonstrations. In 1993, he received most of the nationalised property in restitution and set up private business as a farmer and owner of a locksmith shop.