We sowed grain, we were not allowed to mill anything. We weren’t allowed to do anything
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Jindřich Joch was born on 5 July 1940 as an illegitimate child to Marie Machová in the small village of Rapšach/Rottenschachen in southern Bohemia. When he was about five years old, his mother married Rudolf Joch and they moved to Bor near Suchdol nad Lužnicí, where Rudolf Joch owned a farm of 12 hectares. In the mid-1950s, the communists began to establish a cooperative farm (JZD) in Suchdol. The Jochs, like many other farmers in the village, refused to join the cooperative farm. They faced liquidation obligatory deliveries, threats and severe persecution for their resistance. Rudolf Joch was repeatedly taken away for interrogation and threatened with eviction from the village. Eventually, the parents joined the cooperative farm under the pressure. Jindřich Joch finished primary school in 1953 and started working as a helper at the local sawmill. However, he was soon dismissed because of his so-called kulak origin. It was only thanks to the intercession of the local gamekeeper that he got a job at the forests, where he worked until his retirement. In his memories, he describes life in the immediate vicinity of the Iron Curtain. Jindřich Joch died shortly after recording, in October 2025.
