Zdeněk Kalenský

* 1935

  • “On my father’s side, from those whom I had named, only I and my father returned. And my dad actually gave me my life twice, because he… from that… We were not in a concentration camp, it was a labour camp near Warsaw. We went towards the east from Terezím. Dad smuggled me out of there through the ditches – from the camp, for money. At that time, money bought everything and anything in Poland, even papers and a birth certificate and everything. So he saved me out of that place. When there was the shutdown of that camp, it was three months or half a year later, they were running away with mother. But women, they’re not in such a physical shape as men in those years. So, father managed to hide somewhere there, that’s what I only know from stories, at that time, I was gone from that camp for some time. So he managed to escape from that camn, and mom, it was not possible, they took her away. So from this side of my father, with the exception of me and my father, nobody returned.”

  • “I, at that time, became aware… First, it was getting on my nerves, as they say. I couldn’t agree with that. And those Russians coming. That’s when it all piles up together so that you cannot deal with it. You see all sorts of nastiness. Even in our company, when a normal person wanted something, they had to get fifty permits. And then they came and suddenly, all sorts of things got written off and taken away. And nothing could be done about it. And that’s how it piles up. And suddenly there is some lines. I could not process many things and the line, when it comes to the Party, was in 1969, that anniversary [of the Soviet occupation]. Then I said no, no, no, not this, I don’t need this thing. It was not about any contributions [note: compulsory Party fees].

  • “How did you feel about the Red Army?” “As did most of the people, you know, at first, the screws were loosened and suddenly tightened again. It was not all at once, it was gradual, but at that time, people knew that it was different. Apart from that, the first shock, in the morning, you are walking your child to the kindergarten. You are from here, from Budějovice, you know it here. In the Dukelská Street, on the corner with Mánesova Street, there was the kindergarten ran by the Motor company. I rode on bike with my daughter from the Puklicova Street towards Sady, around the Black tower, the shortest route. Now, here a tank is parked, there is another one, you wouldn’t feel too good about it. Because how it slowly degraded, that they at least got the soldiers withdrawn from the town centre, so that one would not see them at every corner, so everyone just accepted the reality. What else could we have done? We couldn’t have done anything else.”

  • “As years went by, one couldn’t help laughing. Brigade of Socialist Work: What did you do? Well, I do this and that. Mostly, what was supposed to be done did get actually done but when they made an event of it, there were the brigades and red flags awarded. When one thinks about it today, it’s just for a show. Nowadays, I almost can’t believe that such a nonsense could live such lingering existence.” “You said that you found it more and more annoying. Could you specify what sort of things you found irksome, what did annoy you?” “I became aware of this what I am telling you now, that it was sheer nonsense. That things get done regardless of any Brigade of Socialist work. I would be doing it anyway. It is just a bubble to be popped. The whole system of that management and that planning at all, these days, one can only laugh about it, after those years.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    České Budějovice, 02.03.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 02:07:41
  • 2

    České Budějovice, 09.03.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 01:49:49
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

My father gave me my life twice

Zdeněk Kohn shortly before the transport to the concentration camp, 1941
Zdeněk Kohn shortly before the transport to the concentration camp, 1941
photo: Archiv pamětníka

Zdeněk Kalenský, né Kohn, was born on the 19th of October of 1935 in Nestánice in Southern Bohemia. His parents – Marta, née Margoliusová, and father Arnošt were from Czech Jewish families but they were not practising Jews. The Kohns ran a butcher’s shop in Nestánice. Due to the Nazi Anti-Jew laws, Zdeněk couldn’t start school. In April 1942, the Kohn family was transported to the Terezín ghetto. After a week, they continued to Poland, occupied by the Nazi Germany, to a forced labour camp in Kaweczyn. In miserable living conditions in what used to be a shed for drying bricks, he family spent their last weeks together. In June 1942, the witness’ parents learned about the planned transport of children and with the help of the Polish resistance, they managed to get Zdeněk out of the camp and move him to an elderly couple who lived in Polish countryside. In August 1942, the labour camp was closed down and Arnošt Kohn managed to escape. He visited his hiding son and then left for Bohemia. While Zdeněk survived the war with false papers with a Polish family, his father Arnošt was hiding at his relatives’ in a gamekeeper’s lodge in Jedlá near Ledeč nad Sázavou. After war, Zdeněk and his father returned to Nestanice. Of the wider Kohn family, they were the only two to survive. The witness apprenticed as a metalworker and locksmith in 1953. In the years 1954 – 1956, he spent his army service in the special guard unit of the Ministry of Interior whose job was, among other, to guard the Jáchymov forced labour camps. After leaving the army, he worked in the Motor company in Vodňany and at the Lipno dam construction. In 1959, he accepted the offer to become the Communist Party member and between 1960 – 1965, he worked in the Czechoslovak Union of Youth. From 1965 until retirement, he worked in a construction company. After the Soviet occupation in 1968 and particularly after forceful suppression of the protests in August 1969, he renounced his Party membership. In 2020, the witness lived in Týn nad Vltavou. After war, Zdeněk and his father returned to Nestanice. Of the wider Kohn family, they were the only two to survive. The witness apprenticed as a metalworker and locksmith in 1953. In the years 1954 – 1956, he spent his army service in the special guard unit of the Ministry of Interior whose job was, among other, to guard the Jáchymov forced labour camps. After leaving the army, he worked in the Motor company in Vodňany and at the Lipno dam construction. In 1959, he accepted the offer to become the Communist Party member and between 1960 – 1965, he worked in the Czechoslovak Union of Youth. From 1965 until retirement, he worked in a construction company. After the Soviet occupation in 1968 and particularly after forceful suppression of the protests in August 1969, he renounced his Party membership. In 2020, the witness lived in Týn nad Vltavou.