“Everybody was looking at the engine, and suddenly a shot like from a cannon, I turned around and saw the gun, that shot, he shot me in the throat, here he put it and shot me, but missed the spinal cord by a millimeter, I did not feel anything and when I touched it there was blood everywhere, and on the map as I showed him. Set the course to Germany! What I did, I was young, so I reached for it, he drew back and boom, the second shot was right in my lungs. Here it came and this way it went out, I can show you, my only luck was that it was a shot from only one meter. That's what the doctors told me that it had such a breakthrough that the bullet did not stay there, otherwise it usually gets stuck and a man dies. I started fighting back again, then another one came here, I lost my teeth here, it was pounding out, it really hurt me, but I fought back, you have no idea what it is to fight for your life.”
"I turned to the airport and there were tanks everywhere, and soldiers, they had to choose the exercise right then, so I went in there, and now suddenly there was a soldier with a machine gun, a Russian one. I stopped, stepped out and said, "Man, I'm in a hurry, I'm leaving," and he reached for the machine gun and ordered me to get in a car. I sat in the car and turned back, and I was driving the car and there was a West German, who stopped behind me and he was also thrown out so he saw a Czech and said, "Well, that's bad luck with those Russians.´ So at that moment I got it that they have occupied us, you will not believe it, I had tears in my eyes."
"Well, but in the three weeks, when Mom was home alone, someone knocked on the door, she opened it, and Geheime Staatspolizei, if her husband was at home. He went to get his cigarettes. On the corner of the house were good friends, when it was nice, they were out, pensioners, my mom opened the window and showed that my dad should not come in, my dad went back to his grandfather in Židenice in Brno, dug the gun, packed it and took to the Czech police, as if they found it right then, so they gave it up. They were waiting there for about half an hour, neighbors were waving to daddy that there was the gestapo, so he stayed there and did not hesitate to go to Lübeck in Germany."
Miroslav Riessner was born on 20 June, 1928 in Brno. In his childhood his two sisters died and only his younger brother and his parents remained his family. During the protectorate his father was imprisoned by the gestapo and was imprisoned in Kounicovy koleje for six months. The family had to move out from the flat and he lived at his grandparents in Velenov near Boskovice for some part of the war, where he also witnessed the end of it and related events in a small village. Influenced by the air fighters in England, after graduation he was accepted to the air school in Chrudim in 1948 and in two years he became an air navigator. For his political opinions and despite very good study results he was transferred to the combat regiment. During a routine flight with a powdering aircraft in 1951, between Olomouc and Prostějov, in an unsuccessful attempted abduction of an aircraft by Eduard Kučera, he was heavily shot several times. He received a medal for bravery and an offer to join the communist party, which he refused. After recovering from the injury he got transferred to the so-called carrier, where he was carrying military and government officials. In 1952 he married and two sons were born shortly thereafter. In 1958 before leaving the army he was sent with his family for a year to Guinea in Africa, where they provided airline connections across the country. In 1961 he finally left the army and took up almost a thirty-year career of the air navigator at CSA (Czechoslovak Airlines). There he also experienced dramatic events on August 21, 1968, and as a non-party, he experienced the Velvet Revolution and retirement. All his life was a very active athlete, an entertainer, he worked with children in sports clubs, and the village of Soutice, where he currently lives, granted him honorary citizenship in 2017. Miroslav Riessner passed away on June, the 1st, 2018.
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!
