The communists made sure that nothing became of us Germans
He was born on 16 June 1944 in Liberec into a German family. His father Franz Josef Plischke came from Kristiánov near Frýdlant, his mother Hedwig, née Tandler, from Fojtka near Liberec. The family lived in the Ruprechtice district of Liberec and the parents worked in textile factories. The father was one of the necessary German specialists as a textile machines supervisor, so the family was not expulsed. However, all relatives - grandparents and siblings of the parents - were included in the expulsion. In 1948 and 1949, he and his parents crossed the border illegally twice in the Šluknov foothills when they were carrying cancer medicine to his mother‘s sister. In 1950, he entered the primary school in Rudolfov in Liberec. In 1954 the family moved to Bílý Potok, where his father was transferred to work in a textile factory. From the sixth grade he went to school in Hejnice, after which, as a German, he could only apprentice at the district municipal enterprise in Frýdlant, although he wanted to become an auto mechanic. From 1958 he participated in motorcycle races. After his apprenticeship, he worked as a machine adjuster in the Frýdlant Metal Works. From 1963 to 1965 he completed his basic military service in Žatec as a driver of Tatra 111, then he joined the Frýdlant hospital as a driver. He drove an ambulance for 32 years until his retirement in 1998. In 2024 he was living with his wife in Frýdlant. We were able to record the story of the witness thanks to support from the town of Frýdlant.