Josef Zdražil

* 1944

  • “The war front in the territory of Yugoslavia was passing from… and it was continuously going back and forth and there were various armies that passed through – Germans, Italians, Russians; there were partisans, too. And during this war we were evacuated three times, which means that – if you can imagine that – that you are sitting at home or doing something and they come to tell you that you need to leave your house within fifteen minutes. And you don’t know at all whether you will come back or what would eventually happen. And it happened to us three times, but as I said, I was one year old at that time, so I don’t remember it, I only know it because others have told me about it. We were with partisans in the forest and the problem was that there was no food, and at one time we only had beans to eat for quite a long time, otherwise there was nothing else, and it was really not a kind of food suitable for small children. I had serious health problems because of it, and I returned from death’s door, as you say. My life was at risk.”

  • “I thus joined the Pioneer organization and I remember it quite precisely, because I didn’t endure in there for too long. We had one meeting, and we went somewhere, we spent some time outside and we were looking at Semily. Our leader was certain Poláček, and as we were sitting there, he remarked: ‘It’s nice here, isn’t it?’ We, children, nodded our heads that it was indeed nice there. Of course we liked the place. And suddenly he told me: ‘But you have come from that bloody dog Tito.’ Tito was the head of the former Yugoslavia. I said: ‘Well, I was born in Yugoslavia, that’s true.’ And he said: ‘Since you come from that bloody dog Tito, you cannot wear the Pioneer scarf, I will take it away from you.’ And he grabbed my scarf, and I returned home crying.”

  • “When my grandpa died, the authorities did not even allow my mother to go to his funeral. And as for me, the first time to get back to former Yugoslavia was in 1964 and it was not as easy as it is now, when you have a passport and nobody keeps you here and you just travel. But we had to submit a request for money for the journey, it was called a request for granting foreign currency. Then you had to fill out a form and request a so-called exit permit and only then they gave you a passport. And there were many forms to fill out. When I was teaching at school, they were making the decision whether we would be allowed to travel or not, and I needed to gather about seven signatures and stamps before I was allowed to travel.”

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    Semily, 08.02.2018

    (audio)
    duration: 53:03
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Josef Zdražil

Josef Zdražil was born on February 3, 1944 in Vukovar in the territory of former Yugoslavia. The war brought about very dramatic experiences for his family because the front passed through Vukovar several times, they were evacuated from their home three times, and their house was later destroyed. After World War Two, Yugoslavia was gradually turning into a communist state. Due to Josef’s father Czech roots, the Zdražil family decided to move to Czechoslovakia. They arrived to Czechoslovakia in 1947 and since 1949 they were living in Semily. After the communist coup d’état in Czechoslovakia, the family was regarded by the authorities as politically untrustworthy due to their origin, the reason being that Yugoslavia was in conflict with the Soviet Union. Josef Zdražil and his sister were not allowed to study the schools of their choice. Josef eventually completed a teaching college and he worked as a teacher in Lomnice nad Popelkou and later in Semily. Subsequently he worked in a children’s home as a tutor and later as its director. After the Velvet Revolution he also worked as a director of educational administration offices. Vukovar, the city whence Josef Zdražil comes from, was destroyed during the division of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.