Václav Kiršner

* 1943

  • “The united agricultural coop was founded in 1951. And they took people there three crowns per unit. Earning one unit or two a day totalled six crowns. They could not live on it. They were lucky enough to have a cow and a piece of ground, a few meters behind the garden somewhere. So, they met at Škramlík. There they agreed and signed off from the coop. And on the first of September they stood in the yard of the coop in that Jaros farm. And they waited for the land to be assessed. And the young ambitious mayor stepped onto the balcony and said to them, 'After the harvest we will give you the land.' And perhaps they waited again the next day, or three days later. They didn't work in the morning. And then they went to the field. And there in the fields they were arrested by the boys in leather jackets. They collected them and did not return. Wife's dad, he was there in slippers, so he went to jail wearing only slippers. They got... Škramlík got eleven years, they got ten, then four, I don't know - three…”

  • „And how did you manage with your mother?" Well she was so tired and overloaded, spitting blood ad the doctor found out she had bronchitis, and a hole in lungs about five times six centimetres, about the size of a small hen egg. So, she went to the sanatorium in Prosečnice. There they cut her ribs at her sides, pulled her into a carapace, her lungs tightened and squeezed. She survived and recovered. Well, you know what she could do, she was retired, so she moved home. But we had… it was already agreed that we would go to the orphanage. Well, but Aunts took us in charge, so they used to come to our house. The horsemen gave us pigs, put two boars in the garden, there they made a shed. So, we cleaned. They always brought a lot of potatoes, we had to rip out the sprouts, put them in the steamer. Cooking potatoes, Jarda, the older brother, the Lamb, was doing it again.”

  • „When you wanted to transfer something, they always checked you hard. Well, something has always been written. We wrote far less what it cost, such trifles. But they checked us thoroughly. Even though we drove there with our cars. I know someday ... my friend bought a camera case. Look, we were there for an hour ... they were checking us, under the car and everywhere, cameras ... and they were always looking. Finally, after an hour, he said, 'If I had the power, I would shake the camera out.' But he, my friend, said to him, 'Yeah, I already have that at home. I bought a case for it.' That was terrible, with customs officers.”

  • “We went to see him, we went to him, I remember that exactly, in a year, in 1952 we visited him. My mother and I went to Prague. There our uncle was waiting for us, it was my brother's brother, Romuald Kiršner, who was in England serving in the RAF. So he came to us. And Mrs. Dubová went with us, who was the wife of Jirka Dub, also to visit. And we went to Kartouzy. There we stayed overnight at our uncle´s and the next day we went to Kartouzy for a visit. We came to Jičín and we walked a bit, I do not remember if it was maybe two kilometers or so. I remember it was a solid solid gate. I remember the visit started. My dad was behind the glass wall, his hair cut bold. Uncle said: 'Hey, Jenda passes his regards to you.' And the guy who stood there, the guard, got crazy and screamed: 'Who's Jenda?' - 'Well, that's a brother.' So he calmed down. And then mom asked him, 'Where's your teeth?' And Dad showed he got into a fight. They had to knock everyone out so he didn't have a single tooth. And it was the end of the visit, and we went home when he showed that…" - "So that was the first time you saw your father since the arrest?" - "Yes. And again mother cried. I guess cried with her too when we went to the station. And she was telling Romuald, my uncle, my dad's brother: 'In February after the sentence was established, people were crying that Kirshner should have gotten a rope (got sentenced to death), because he had a brother in England.'

  • “In Prague we arrived to ... it was a train station, which doesn't exist anymore, I don't even know... Brevnov. And the newpaper ´Rudé právo´, it was already occupied. So we went to Václavák. And down on Wenceslas Square, there was Zátopek under the tank, standing on the street and arguing with the Russians. We passed. When we were in the middle of Wenceslas Square, the Russians started shooting at the Museum, shooting up the Museum. Then we went up to the grocery house. There some guys, you know, set the tank on fire. The auxiliary tanks were broken through the pickaxe and lit up. And as they lit it, so from the bottom the tanks started to run by Václavák and drove us to… And I ran up to the Main Station, upstairs, at the Central Council of Trade Unions. There I walked, it was the Italian street, I crossed it and kept walking to Pankrác. And I went to Zvěstov.”

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    České Budějovice, 26.09.2019

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    duration: 01:42:21
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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    Praha, 05.12.2019

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    duration: 57:00
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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We experienced bad communist years I can tell you

Václav Kiršner
Václav Kiršner
photo: archiv pamětníka

Václav Kiršner was born on June 14, 1943 in Zvěstov in the Benešov district as the middle one of five children. His parents, Milada and Václav Kiršner, owned a small farm with six hectares of land, operated a pub, butchers and shop. In 1951, Václav Kiršner Sr. was arrested and accused of participation in a terrorist organization in a fabricated trial. The court acknowledged his guilt and in 1952 punished him with an unconditional life imprisonment. In 1953, mother Milada became seriously ill. During her 18-month treatment, Kirshner’s siblings lived alone with the support of relatives. Václav Kiršner apprenticed as a carpenter. Since 1963 he worked at the Development Base of the uranium industry Příbram. In 1964 he married his wife Milada, née Pohanova, and together they brought up two sons. His father was conditionally released in 1964 with poor health. In 1994 he became a private entrepreneur. Since 2005 he has been receiving a pension, while still devoting himself to his craft. In 2019, Václav Kiršner lived in Havírna near Příbram.