Josef Ondrýsek

* 1920

  • I would like to remind our young people that we don’t want them to experience what we went through. We have to recall that not always did we live in such good times. We went through a very hard war, me and my parents. They might have raised us in poverty, but also in the spirit of honesty which needs to be always developed. We should not forget that no one will give us anything for free and that what we will build ourselves, we will have forever.

  • We decided to launch a major operation. In the nearby village Čechy pod Košířem, there was a Hungarian-German military garrison. The Germans were in charge of it. We decided to attack this garrison. We surrounded the yard. There was a watch going around and once it came to the gate, we disarmed it. The soldiers were sleeping in cowsheds and carriages. Some of them moved when we entered, but then again pretended to be sleeping as they were afraid. Then we broke into house with the German officers and disarmed them immediately. As a coincidence, when we got there, one of them moved rapidly and I reacted by shooting him on the spot. It was terrible. Then, they all raised their hands. We were not thinking really about what could have happened. If only those Hungarians got together… But they didn’t. And we took all the arms and left. We took one of the Germans from Sudetenland with us so that they would leave us alone. But when we were far enough, we went smoking and one Russian partisan shot this German without any previous notice. It was just in these people, even though it was really horrible when I think about it now.

  • The war time was getting close to us. After the Nazi repressions for Heydrich, we knew we had to increase our sabotage efforts. We wanted to sabotage the production by creating defects. But it was really hard as we were making parts for machines in Sigma that were taken to a close military storehouse where airplanes were built. When the Germans started to lose the war in the East and our numbers increased as well, the Germans moved these parts to Germany immediately as well as the measuring and other special machines we produced. So together with our teacher Placek, we started smuggling some of these parts outside the factory. Another teacher, Mr. Dostál made a deal with a pastor in Slatinice to bring the stuff to the latter’s vicarage. So we put it to large boxes and sent it to Třebčín by train and then to Slatinice by van, one box after another. There we stored it and after the war, we returned it all to the factory. How did you cover this operation? How did you mask it? Well, shortly before, a lot of gas mask boxes were sent this way, so we used these boxes. It was the only cover. These masks were made in Sigma even before the war. We were even testing them as apprentices.

  • Did you witness the expulsion? I was there as a participant of it! As a soldier, I served in Zábřeh in the artillery unit. It was my task to leave with a transport to Germany. Nobody in my transport was hurt. On every stop, we left all those who were in the wagons to go out and visit the bathrooms. Of course, we had to surround them with our automatic weapons so they don’t flee. Once we arrived in Germany, the Germans were really happy, but they also went to the wagons for one last time and begged for food. It might be that they did something to the transported in other trains, but ours was totally ok. I could see that all of the staff was behaving really nicely. When the German army was running away from the Soviets, the rest of them were grouped in an internment camp. Once the Germans left, we were in charge of that camp. A lot of different people came to that camp. Once, there was a man who wanted to visit some girl in that camp. When I learned what it was all about, we took off immediately and were gone in less than an hour. Because with this kind of people around, what should we do…

  • How did we help? We sabotaged the production or delayed necessary reparations. At that time, I had a teacher who told me: Josef, I get it all, but we have to be careful. When something was broken and was to be repaired in our factory, I always suggested spending more time on it than it was really necessary. When Russian prisoners were around, we tried to help them by providing them food or clothes. A lot of times, I didn’t even realize what could have happened. And we weren’t afraid! One couldn’t say anything, but we tried hard to help. There was nothing more than patriotism for us! Death or danger? We got into it as lions. That’s why I tell the young people today to try hard so that things work out as they should – because we could live kings!

  • There was a German family living in our house. And we could really work with them as if we were the same. They had three children: Otto, Edeltrude (whom we called Trudina) and Kurt. Kurt was fighting in the war and he ended up in the East Germany. He offered my brother a gun, just like that, but my brother refused in order not to make Kurt any troubles. They acted like Czechs until the very end. And they were expulsed too. Only Edeltrude, who married a German man, was a bit more pro-German. Otto, who was of the same age as my brother, married a Czech girl. He was expulsed and she stayed here. This family was really of the same kind as we were, there was no difference.

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    České Budějovice, 27.07.2012

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There was nothing more than patriotism for us

Mr. Ondrýsek as a young man
Mr. Ondrýsek as a young man
zdroj: Domácí fotogalerie

Josef Ondrýsek was born on March 1, 1920 in Lutín. He became an apprentice of a mechanical locksmith and a toolmaker in Sigma Lutín. He recalls how poorly he was paid at the time, when all he earned could only cover the expenses for his food and clothes. In his later years at the school, the political atmosphere was becoming more and more tense. For example in Olomouc, political manifestations were held against Hitler and chanting support to Stalin. During the war, he already worked in one of the Sigma factories that provided important parts for machines and airplanes. In the beginning of the war, he mainly focused on delaying the reparations by exaggerating the damage of the machines in his reports. After the Nazi repressions followed by the assassination of Heydrich, he intensified his efforts by sabotaging the very production. They were intentionally creating defected goods. Also, they were smuggling some important parts outside the factory into a close vicarage in large boxes made for gas masks transport.Soon enough, he joined the armed resistance as well through a partisan group Rigitan. Along with two other independent groups, they operated in the area of Náměšť, Konice and Javoříčko in the Olomouc region. Besides assaulting German utility vans or trains, they also attacked a German military garrison. In this action, they killed two German officers and disarmed the whole troop. A key support was provided by local people who helped how they could - with food or even shelter. Often, they didn‘t even think about what consequences their actions might have. „There was nothing more than patriotism for us! Death or danger? We got into it as lions.“ As a revenge for the incessant partisan attacks, the Nazi troops burned the village of Javoříčko and killed all men older than 15 years, including the friends of Mr. Ondrýsek.Josef Ondrýsek himself, however, had a rather good experience with his German neighbors. He could cope with them on the same if not higher level as with the Czechs. Kurt Ludva, one of them, offered a gun to his brother, who refused it in order not to cause him any trouble. Nevertheless, they were all expulsed after the war. Mr. Ondrýsek oversaw one of the transfers himself as a soldier. After a man from Lutín went to the internment camp for Germans to abuse the women there, Mr. Ondrýsek ordered the whole transport to leave from the place. Until the end, there was no problem with the transferred Germans. After the end of the war and the transfers, he was elected a member of the Regional National Committee. In this position, he met Alexej Čepička in Přerov. For most of his life, he worked in the Agricultural Production Community. Only very reluctantly does he recall his disputes with the Communist party functionaries which made him go to work in the mines in the Karviná area. He doesn‘t like to think about his protests against the Soviet intervention in 1968 either. After 1990, he lost all his savings because of a bankruptcy of a saving bank. In the last couple of years, he is trying to work with the youth and tell them about his experiences. He is very much supported in this by his wife.