There were men in leather coats waiting for Dad
Stáhnout obrázek
Pavel Kristl was born on 18 August 1929 in Dolní Dobrouč, where he spent his childhood with his parents František (1899-1968) and Julie (1902-1992) Kristl and his siblings Blanka (*1931), Jiří (*1935) and Vojtěch (1939-2022). They lived in the People‘s House, where local culture, theatres, and dances took place. Both parents were amateur actors, the father worked as a tailor. The family lived an active religious life. In the spring of 1939 the village became part of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, while the neighbouring Dittersbach (Horní Dobrouč) became part of the German Reich after the Munich Agreement. The two villages were separated by a barrier guarded by elderly German soldiers. They stayed in the People‘s House and his mother was obliged to cook for them. When the Soviet army approached at the end of the war, they escaped and were killed by partisans in the forest. With the end of the war, individuals emerged who wilfully took the fate of other people into their own hands. The Kristls were also approached by a German coal records inspection. At the beginning of 1945, three transports of prisoners of war passed through the village. One of them stayed in the People‘s House for the night, and people were allowed to bring food and clothing to the prisoners there. Several of them escaped to the surrounding forests, where they were hidden and cared for by local people. On 5 May 1945, after the Prague Uprising was announced, two men carelessly went to Dittersbach to disarm German soldiers. However, they were shot on the spot, including a third who tried to dissuade them from their intention. The entire village attended the funeral of the three young men. The Soviet army also arrived, and prisoners who had been hiding there until then came from the woods. This proved fatal for the owner of the textile factory, Rudolf Pohl, who was sentenced to death and shot for collaborating with the Germans. Witness´s father became mayor of the Local National Committee after the war, but gave up the position in 1948. He was fined for sewing illegally, and the family was subsequently evicted from the People‘s House. Pavel Kristl left for the army in 1951 and became a professional soldier. At the rank of lieutenant colonel, he was responsible for the meteorological operation of airports in various parts of Czechoslovakia. He and his wife Ludmila (1934) married in 1955 and had two children in 1956 and 1961. In 2013, he was awarded the Meritorious Cross of the Minister of Defence for his long-standing work for the benefit of the hydrometeorological service. He returned to Dolní Dobrouč as a pensioner in 1996. He was living here at the time of the recording of 2024.
