Josef Tkáč

* 1953

  • "I remember once, there was a black 'sixty-three' there too, that was in the beginning. I said, 'Are you waiting for the neighbour, Mr Pavlištík?' 'Get out and don't bother!' they told me. Then the neighbour came home from work, I said: 'Neighbour, what have you got there? They were waiting for you...' - 'Pepa, it was the SS! No wonder they talked to you like that...' Get out of here, don't bother." - "You only saw them once?" - "No, they were there more often."

  • "And just beyond the wires there was a dirt road where the border guards used to drive their gazelles. And there was a little stream with reeds. So we went through the stream and I could see the other wires. And we were almost there. Suddenly, a GAZ 69. It came to the exact spot where we cut it. One with a machine gun on one side and one with a dog on the other side of the stream, this little canyon. We hid. He couldn't see us from the side of the Gaz 69. But they ran to the other wires and found that they were not damaged. That we'd definitely be there again. So they saw us and they said, 'Hands up!'"

  • "'The Russians are coming at us!' - 'Grandpa, what? How the Russians?' - 'The Russians are coming and they're shooting at us, I heard it on the radio!' He had this radio on the wire or whatever it was... that they had already crossed the Dukla Pass, that they were being led by those who knew it during the war, the old fighters, and that they were coming. So we ran out, and now people were running out everywhere, and Grandpa with one more guy, that we were going to build barricades. So we were overturning, I was helping too, we were overturning old wagons, pulling out all kinds of rocks and junk, that was blocking the road. Shit, so many rifles, machine guns, what a number of bullets from the Second World War..."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Zlín, 29.09.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:49:16
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
  • 2

    Zlín, 20.11.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 02:32:32
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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If I hadn‘t had such a committed father, the punishment would have been much harsher

Josef Tkáč, 1970s
Josef Tkáč, 1970s
zdroj: archive of a witness

Josef Tkáč was born in what was then Gottwaldov (now Zlín) on 17 February 1953. Both his parents came from Slovakia. At first they lived in a small apartment in a Bata house on Podvesná Street, later in a larger one on III. Zálešná. His father, Petro Tkáč, joined the Communist Party right from the beginning of his work in Svit and became the chairman of the housing commission for many years. In contrast, his mother Helena, née Džupinová, was a strong believer until the end of her life. At the age of sixteen, the witness unsuccessfully attempted to cross the border into Austria. He escaped with only a suspended sentence, but the possibility of studying was closed to him. He trained as a milling machine operator and completed his military service in Písek in 1972-1974. He also worked as a driver for the Connections Assembly Plant in Prague or in the Svedrup metalworking cooperative. After 1989, he started his own business - with a partner, he founded the company TAŠ, operated a sawmill and a swimming pool in Malenovice. In 2023 he lived in Zlín.