Ota Dračka

* 1955

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Progress: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
 
1x
  • "All we were getting was cash. Priot to the strike, we could bargain in the market. From the strike on, the Poles put in place a ban on selling alcohol immediately, which didn't work too well because there was always someone drunk. But there was just no bargaining anymore. The prices shot up. If someone wanted to buy a chicken to make soup or some food, they gave you a rate. If you tried to haggle, they'd say, 'No, this much. If you don't buy, somebody else will.' And that was it."

  • "Of course, we got various information from the boys in the infirmary. So when we found out that some bullying had started somewhere, we nipped it in the bud, we put it in order. If a guy wanted to bully someone, we invited him to the infirmary and he would leave with a different mindset." - "How did you do that?" - "Most of them just needed some pep talk, with a few threats of course, and such..." - "I thought maybe you gave him some really unpleasant examination or something..." - "We could do that, and we did." - "Really?" - "Of course. If you take a swab of the tonsils with iodine glycerol..."

  • "When my grandfather came back with the Americans, first of all he had to be treated because when he was arrested he weighed 96 kilos, he told me, and when he was released he weighed 42 kilos. When the Americans got them out of the prison where they were for the night so they could continue the next day, he said an American gave him a bar of chocolate, and he knew that if he took a bite he would die. Eventually an officer came running in and took it all out of their hands again. They made a makeshift tent hospital and he was given a spoonful of some broth at a time, and then maybe after some time again and gradually they got them used to the diet, so it wasn't a happy time. But he came with them [the Americans] to Cheb, where he decided to stay then."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha, 17.04.2025

    (audio)
    duration: 03:01:58
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

An unpleasant “medical intervention” helped those bullied in the military

Ota Dračka's high school graduation photo, 1974
Ota Dračka's high school graduation photo, 1974
photo: Witness's archive

Ota Dračka was born in Děčín on 23 January 1955 to parents Otto Dračka and Marija Dračková. His paternal grandparents took part in the anti-Nazi resistance. Grandfather František Dračka was imprisoned in Germany from 1943 until the end of the war. His wife Alžběta was imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp and died in December 1943. His grandfather Ignác Haluza who had lived in what is now Croatia since his youth joined Tito’s partisan movement in 1944. The Czech-Croatian Haluza family was repatriated to Czechoslovakia after the war and settled in Děčín. Ota Dračka started school in 1961 and joined the restored Junák (Scout) in 1968. He witnessed the Warsaw Pact invasion into Czechoslovakia at a children’s camp near Šluknov. His father was expelled from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) during the normalisation period for political reasons, but his working career was not affected. Ota Dračka completed a mechanical engineering high school in 1974 and joined ČSPLO (Czechoslovak Elbe-Oder Boat Shipping) as a boatman. In 1975, he enlisted in Prostějov and served as a medic. He went back to shipping after his military service. He witnessed the Solidarity movement strike in Szczecin in 1980 and repeatedly went to Poland on business during the local martial law. He quit boating in 1982. For the next seven years, he worked with the North Bohemian power company. He improved his education in water management and environment to work as a water manager and ecologist. He made his living as a sole trader after 1989, installing water treatment plants and working as a financial advisor and real estate agent. He is active in conservation and organises the World Conservation Day. Since 2009 he has been involved in politics and has been the vice-chairman of the DOMOV party, known for its pro-Russian orientation and spreading disinformation, since 2024. He was living in Benešov nad Ploučnicí in 2025.