Josef Svoboda

“(What does the year 1989 and the fall of the Communist regime mean to you? How did you feel about it?) – My impression was…what I did not like was the ringing of the keys, and all those speeches. If you look at it now, where has it all gone?! In my opinion, the young people stand no chance, because whether they manage to finish their studies or not, there is unemployment, you hear economic crisis mentioned at all times! – (So you think that before 1989 the situation was more favourable?) – It was. In my opinion it was. I was never partial to anyone, I had to earn my own living, and I really do not like the situation in which we are today. You can see it for yourself, how things look, everyone striving for positions, craving just money, money, and people – they are in the very last place, I think.”

“I was transferred to Znojmo, to the fortress battalion and this battalion was intended to support the border guards. Because Znojmo was a town near the state border. It was in 1953. And our task was to watch the small fortresses in Šatov and other places together with the border guards – we took them over. The work was quite demanding and there were many people who required something more from us. And there was a chairman of a local communist party organization, and he somehow focused on me, and began bullying me wherever he could. – (And you were a Party member at that time?) – I was in the Party at that time, there was no other way. Later, I was transferred to those Auxiliary Technical Battalions. Not because I would be unreliable, but because I had some negative comments in my file. And if I remember it correctly, I was sent to Sokolov, which used to be called Falknov nad Ohří, and there we lived in a monastery building, we had our command there, and I worked as a platoon commander there.”

“The residential area in the Slovany suburb in Plzeň was being built. They were sent to work for Posista, a construction company, and they worked at building the blocks of flats in Slovany and in other areas where Posista was operating. The soldiers were deployed there and had to work there. It was a group construction work. Thus they did not get any real training. The drill – we only had wooden replicas of firearms, no real weapons. Some of the boys were not able to bear it, all the stuff, so there were even some suicides. – (Perhaps because some of them were bullied?) – Not all the commanders were same, as for myself, I have never taken part in anything like that.”

“I believe writer Švandrlík may have also served in the same auxiliary technical battalion near Plzeň…That film, starring Landovský and others, was probably made on the basis of that, the Black Barons film. And the film corresponded with that. But I am not sure whether he really served near Plzeň, there was an airport. But what was portrayed in the film a lot was that we were made idiots there! We, the commanders who served there, had gone through proper military education. And each of us got there in a different way, for refusing an order, or something like that. Those officers were then transferred there as commanders of the auxiliary technical battalions. And this was what happened to me, that was how I began my duty there.”