"Husák came and the normalization began. It started to be tighter, and what continues to this day had begun: We will give you food and you will give us peace. And it still lasts. And unfortunately, I think the clue, of what happened, is seen within the nation. I may have already said here that in 1938, when my father had to go to war, the first of all he had to go to some secret service. I always said to myself, later, that my father could have fallen at the front and I could be proud of my brave dad. But now it's all that careful and people are afraid."
"Then we came to the shaft with two hours of training. And I confess to you that there were times when I cried. Even though I've never been a sissy. If you could see what it looks like there, broken by handstands, anything is possible. Something is falling on you now, you can't see because of that lamp. That miner is pushing you like a dog. Unfortunately, I got to the most significant follower of Stakhanov in the Mír mine. He looked at us as if they were selling slaves, touching our muscles. I was very muscular, so they put me to his team. But I was a college student. The boys who were farmers, they said, we rest here, we work here for eight hours. We work hard at home twenty hours a day, and they still chase us. So, it was awful before I got used to it. "
"When they were wailing that there would be a raid and you went to the cellar at home, how long were you in that cellar?" - "Three, four hours. I know I was shaking, I was fourteen, I was shaking like that with fear, because it was banging quite close. If you take the Šternekovka, and take the court, behind Malše, the bombing was there too, which is close, and you take Lannovka, the bombing was also there. So, the shots were terrible, and the whistling of those bombs before it hit was awful." "Have you ever gone to look at those broken houses?" - "I was, of course." - "If you were to describe how did that affect you?” - “Awful, awful. A demolished house, for a man who is settled in his home and now he sees those people who have lost everything. What now? Some were wounded, some were dead. You know, we rejoiced at the Gestapo explicitly, openly."
Václav Šulista was born on February 9, 1930 in České Budějovice, where his parents ran a well-known textile shop. He graduated from the J. V. Jirsík Grammar School in Budějovice and in 1949 he began studying his dream field - pharmacy at Charles University in Prague. After four successfully completed semesters, the witness received a notice of cancellation of the postponement of the start of military service and had to enlist in the Auxiliary Technical Battalions to the Karviná mines. He served here for twenty-nine months. After the war, he managed to study pharmacy at the J. E. Purkyně University in Brno and worked as a pharmacist all his life. In 1990 he joined the Union of Auxiliary Technical Battalions. In 2020, Václav Šulista lived with his wife Božena in Drahotěšice, South Bohemia. He passed away on December, the 24th, 2022.
Václav Šulista as a fifteen-year-old basketball player (the 2nd row from the bottom, second from the right), staff captain Beneda in the top middle (1950)
Václav Šulista as a fifteen-year-old basketball player (the 2nd row from the bottom, second from the right), staff captain Beneda in the top middle (1950)
Václav Šulista, in the background is the plaque that reminds members of the PTP in the building of the former barracks on Žižkov třída in České Budějovice
Václav Šulista, in the background is the plaque that reminds members of the PTP in the building of the former barracks on Žižkov třída in České Budějovice
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