„In Kvasilov there was a brewery and the Svárovský factory, a factory for agricultural engine repairs and when I decided what I choose, of course my dad decided about that, as I was a boy of 14 years – so he said: ‚You want to go to a factory or to a mill? Or you want to go to a brewery?‘ My dad, as I had a positive attitude to beer, he took me to a brewery so I could have a look around. And as my uncle worked there and even guided me around the brewery and I said: ‚So I will choose the brewery.‘ It was my fate...“
„I reported as a trooper so I remember – sergeant Koule said: ‚You are pretty weak to become a trooper.‘ And I replied: ‚How come? Isn´t there a crew...‘ ‚It is not so easy there, you have to... when one dies, the other has to replace him... all those patrons... You may not be able to carry those at all!‘ I felt almost offended, but said: ‚But I want to be a trooper!‘ So I said: ‚The only solution is– did you learn well...? So ok, if you can learn the Morse code, you could join the signallers.‘“
„Night after night there were air raids so they moved us further, so we would not suffer as two boys died straight there without even taking off a civil suit, without a uniform, they just got killed.“
Col. engineer Václav Petras is a Volhynian Czech; he was born on 3 July 1927 in Kvasilov. He attended a Czech school in Kvasilov and later in Zdolbunov and was learning in the local brewery. In 1944 he lost his father during a German raid; then he volunteered together with his sister Helena and cousin Sergej as a member of Svoboda army. He was assigned to the signallers and in charge of repairs of broken connections. With frontal troops he got to Ostrava and later to Prague. After war he studied a middle brewery school in Prague and then a High school of chemical technology. He worked in brewery area all his life; in breweries in Kadan, Opava, Ostrava and Loučka u Nového Jičína. In 1970 he was named a director of a newly built brewery Radegast in Nošovice. Since 1979 he was a business director of Severomoravské brewery in Přerov. Even after retiring he assisted as a specialist advisor to breweries in our country and abroad. For his lifetime achievement in 2013 he was put into the hall of fame of the Czech brewery and malting. He got many awards for example an Order of the Great Patriotic War, Dukelská medal and a medal for bravery against enemy. He actively participates in activities of the Czechoslovak Legionaries and the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters.
