„The front rolled over Volhynia several times so regimes were changing repeatedly there. What was your impression of that?“ „I was very careful. Everybody warned us not to get involved in anything, because both sides were coming and leaving. We were loyal to anyone who came. We took no action against either of the sides.“ „Did you have any problems with the Germans or Russians?“ „ No, we didn´t, because we didn´t get involved into anything.“ „ How did you percieve the fashist menace?“ „As major one. It rolled at such great speed. Within a year they were standing by Moscow. That was tremendous danger.“
„I was sentenced. A district court in Přeštice withdrew the charges, but the prosecutor appealed against this ruling. A county court then sentenced me to seven months. So I served the sentence and as I left the jail here in Pilsen, two SNBs – policemen came to me and said: „Come with us.“ I said: Why? It´s over, I´m free!“ But no. I was taken to a SNB office, there a long list of charges was read to me, saying that I wanted to leave, so the Communist party can see that I belong aminong the hostile elements, and every such a person will be sentenced to a camp of forced labour. So I got a year in a forced labour camp. I didn´t get any pay for that year. Now they say that a forced labour camp wasn´t a prison. And I was in uranium mines in Příbram! What hard labour was that! And I got nothig for it. Now I have sent it to the Interiour Ministry. I don´t know if I will get anything or not.“
„Then I started a kind of conspiracy. I wanted to flee to the west, but it didn´t work out. I got together with a friend of mine. They didn´t catch me on the border, not at all. But that companion of mine had a bicycle and his girlfriend wanted that bicycle. He wanted to take her to the west too. But then he changed his mind, he said he couldn´t leave his mother behind, ill and lonely. ´So give me that bicycle, at least…´ ´But I want to sell it to get some money.´ His mother told it to her neighbour, that neighbour again to another neighbour and in a while police knew it. He was arrested in Bělá nad Radbuzou. They beat him. They called me up to a militia station, too. I arrived and looked at that beaten person, all covered in bruises. I couldn´t recognise him at first, only after a while. So I was saying to myself: ´This will be bad´. He said to me: ´You can see what they have done to me.´ So I had to decide quickly. Should I deny all, or give in? He denied and they kept beating him until he said yes, and also told them about me. So I simply said that we wanted to go. They just can´t do anything to me for that! This is not a crime! But it was enough for them that we wanted to leave. They wrote a record.”
„Many people were killed there. The main cause of this were mines. Every one, two meters one of the infanterists died. That´s why they then picked about fifty people who had to take an anti-mine course. We were given such iron poles and searched for mines and then slowly demounted them. I was terribly scared that the mines could explode. I was chosen for the training, hardly anyone would enter it voluntarily. A lot of people in the batallion lost their arms or legs. There were mines everywhere in Dukla.“
„For us the war ended in Moravia in the village of Stříbrnice near the town of Kojetín. The celebration lasted all night and all day. Our celebration and German as well. The Germans were shooting rockets. Unfortunatelly we didn´t have any. The Germans were only one or two kilometres away, but we didn´t come in touch with them. We could even see them from distance, but we didn´t dare to go there and neither did they. The officers wouldn´t allow that anyway.”
„Now they say that a „forced labour camp“ was not the same as prison. And I was in the uranium mine in Příbram! What hard labour was that! And I got nothing for that year…“
Eduard Svobodinský was born on February 10. 1921 in Volhynia. Both parents worked as farmers in the village of Volkov. He acquired elementary education in czech and ukrainian schools and before the war he graduated from an economic- agricultural secondary school. He wanted to stay on his family´s farm - they had 30 hectares of land, which required special knowledge and experience to be managed.
In 1944 he voluntarily enlisted in Svoboda´s Czechoslovakian army which was just being formed. He went through training in Bukovina - he was supposed to become a telephonist so he was at first trained in signalling techniques. Later his commander recommended him for an officer´s school where he reached the rank of lance-corporal. The task of Eduard Svobodinský was to maintain connection between the staff and an observation point. He also served as a courier among the Czech, Russian and Romanian staffs. Mr. Svobodinský also fought at the battle of Dukla. Most deaths here were caused by contact mines, that is why a special mine-detecting batallion was formed.After the war Mr. Svobodinský didn´t go back to Volyn, he remained in Czechoslovakia. He served in the army until 1948 as a member of the Prague castle guard. After the coup in February 1948 he refused to swear loyalty to president Gottwald and left the army. In 1950´s he unsuccessfully tried to cross the border and was sentenced to seven months in prison. After being released he was arrested again and sent to forced labour in uranium mines in Příbram. After ten years he was supposed to be decorated on the anniversary of the Dukla operation. He worked at first in JZD (socialistic farms) in Lochotín, then in Škoda factory in Pilsen where he finally retired. He still lives in Pilsen today.
