"Somehow we did it. At first the bomb holes had to get filled up. People helped one another, as the field was bombed a lot. All sort of horses were left. The good ones were taken either by the Germans or by the Russians. So we had horses that were so weak that they were falling on the field and we had to lift them up."
"In 1945granny was in the church and survived the entire front coming over there. The Germans made a machine-gun nest at the church tower and the Russians shot at them. The tower was quite destroyed, but it held up. Nearby village barns were burning, because the Russians were throwing grenades everywhere. Smoke was also coming into the church. The old woman together with one lady fled to the parish. The priest with a cook and other people were hiding in the cellar. The old woman always told us about how the first Russian came in. He wanted vodka. The priest told the cook to give him wine. The Russian began to swear nasty and smashed the old typewriter that was there. He took it, tossed it to the ground, when the mashine broke into pieces."
"There was crisis and we had nothing to eat. Dad bought coal for credit to make heat. There was terrible misery everywhere. In 1938 he wanted to go to work to Germany. Hitler and his people said, we'll take you, but you had to join the NSDAP. So my dad joined them. And then he worked in Germany. For the first salary he sent us we bought a cow and the greatest misery was over. There was milk and butter. We also had a piece of land, so there was bread too."
Josef Stříbný was born on 26 August 1933 in Kobeřice near Hlučín. He had four brothers. His father Alfons was a cart-wright. In addition to craft, the family had a smaller farm. At the time of the economic crisis, they experienced poverty and hunger. After the Munich agreement, Kobeřice became part of the Third Reich. The father joined the NSDAP to work in Germany to make a better living for the family. The employing company worked for the German army, and probably built concentration camps in the Baltics. Josef Stříbný had to go to the German school. In April 1945 he witnessed the arrival of the Red Army and the fighting with the German troops. The Russian soldiers then took their house. After the war the family was threatened to get moved out to Germany. As a punishment for his work for the Germans and was in the NSDAP, the father had to spend a year removing war damage at Baťa‘s factory in Zlín. Witness´oldest brother was recruited shortly before the arrival of the war front and spent half a year in Russian captivity. After the war Hlučínsko became again a part of Czechoslovakia. Josef Stříbný apprenticed a carpenter and worked in various constructions. He participated, for example, in the construction of the Klement Gottwald´s New Works in Ostrava or in the construction of a gypsum mine in Kobeřice. He had five children and spent his entire life in his native village.
Group photo of men from Kobeřice who worked in Germany between the wars, on the far right Alfons Stříbný, father of the witness, on the bottom right Vilém Rycka, brother-in-law of Alfons, later they were together in the same unit
Group photo of men from Kobeřice who worked in Germany between the wars, on the far right Alfons Stříbný, father of the witness, on the bottom right Vilém Rycka, brother-in-law of Alfons, later they were together in the same unit
Soldiers on the Russian front, World War II, on the far right Paul Mrovec, brother of his mother, born in 1914, wounded 5 times on the Russian front, from the training of Czechoslovak Army he went straight into World War II
Soldiers on the Russian front, World War II, on the far right Paul Mrovec, brother of his mother, born in 1914, wounded 5 times on the Russian front, from the training of Czechoslovak Army he went straight into World War II
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