"A big building by the cemetery, a big yard, there was an apple tree. Twice a week we could go out, hands behind our backs. They sent a dog after us. We walked around for ten minutes, and it was done. We had to do feathers, mend sacks and things like that. If somebody didn't want to obey, they got a slap or a kick."
"At about 9:30 p.m. the police arrived and began to make order. So it broke up, it dissolved. And the next day it was back to Dělňák. And it was 11:30 at night and someone knocked on the door. And the cops. Throwing everything on the floor, stepping on laundry, looking for weapons. And I told them, 'I thought decent people didn't go out at night. And the cops go out at night?' And I left. There were five of us, the whole group. They're all dead, only I'm still alive."
"I was walking home, it was about 5:30 in the evening, and there was a large gathering of people at the municipal office. So I stopped and asked what it was all about. So I said a few nice words to them, too. What did I tell them? Not to steal and mind their own business. I told them, 'Don't take people's property, you don't do anything yourselves, you just steal!'"
He ended up behind bars for protesting against collectivisation. Five months in solitary confinement, then straight to the PTP (Auxiliary Technical Battalions)
Josef Spáčil was born on 20 September 1930 in Újezd u Brna. His father Josef Spáčil Sr., a locksmith by profession, bought agricultural machinery after the war - threshers and machines for threshing, which he rented to local farmers. He borrowed over 200 thousand crowns for them. After 1948 his machines were nationalised. Joseph, the eldest of the sons, resisted. Together with other residents of Újezd, they protested against collectivisation and nationalisation in front of the National Committee in October 1950. Five people were arrested. He spent five months in solitary confinement in the Bučovice district court prison. Then he was immediately taken to the Auxiliary Technical Battalions (PTP). The district court in Slavkov sentenced him to four months imprisonment for violence against public congregations. He practically served his sentence in detention. Even after his return from the army, he had a hard time getting a job. He worked in a unified agricultural cooperative (JZD), as a driver in ČSAD and in municipal services. Dad paid off the loan he had taken out on confiscated agricultural machinery until he retired. The witness lived to see his judicial rehabilitation in 1995. In 2024, he was living in Újezd u Brna. He died on 4 August 2024.
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