"And I can tell you... Of course, you won't hear that anywhere but from me, that four people have committed suicide there in those two years. They even shot themselves at the battalion. At the battalion, they had patrols, they used to go there with live ammunition, so they shot themselves at the battalion. These were casualties in the military service that nobody knew about, which were the responsibility of Čepička [then Minister of National Defence]. So these are things that I know because I was there, and the families know. And basically, nobody writes anything about this anywhere. Nobody stopped at this. At least I haven't [heard] about these side effects of that anomaly, that they kept people there like in jail, in that military service, because there were people who didn't get home for the first year at all."
"I entered the industrial school, but at that time, when I was still studying, I had a random opportunity to go to the continuation school of electrical engineering, which was in Bubenč, near the Russian embassy today. But that's not why I say that. I had just finished school on 25 February 1948, so when I was coming back from school in the evening, I saw the demonstrations in Wenceslas Square in Prague. So I saw demonstrations there, with university students shouting at each other and marching to the Castle, and workers from ČKD [Czech-Moravian-Kolben-Daněk, engineering company] and I don't know from wherever also marched to the Castle. So I saw the scramble in the forty-eighth year, on 25 February, with my own eyes, and I experienced it. It was very interesting, and it was, I would say, my first strong political experience. Because, of course, I knew what was going on, that it was the end of democracy. So I understood it."
"Imagine, and thank God you won't experience it, that bombing raids flew over Říčany. There were maybe 40 or 50 bombers over Říčany. Can you imagine that? Huge planes, four-engined, Liberator or Super Fortress, it was called. And because the Germans already had radar then, they would release these cut strips of tinfoil to jam the radar so they couldn't shoot at them. And we used to collect those strips as kids - because they were colored - and now if you go for a cup somewhere and you have this little brush with that on it, that's exactly what we used to make out of these strips, and we were so happy to have these nice little brushes with these colored... And these were the bristles that were falling from the bombers."
"Since there were German families here or those who collaborated with them, they all had to go to the Hitler Youth. And for example, this Karel Kaldarar, because he lived next door to us and we played there as children, he played with us. And we let him because we knew he was a good boy. And it turned out that way. Because when he took the soldiers around during the Heydrichiad, he said, 'They have nothing here.' He spoke perfect German, of course. He guided the soldiers and helped a whole lot of people next to the mill who, if there had been anything found there, would have all quite clearly gone to the concentration camp. So this boy, who was 11 years old at the time, helped them like that."
"It so happened that from that mill they brought to us on wagons... ...there was a line of wagons in front of the mill, and they were putting in grain - wheat, rye, and so on. There was a big warehouse and granaries, and that's where they stored it and milled it in the mill. My dad did the electricity in that mill. He was always fixing things for them because it had to run flawlessly. And these people were dependent on each other. And, of course, they helped each other with the supply. Over the fences were the Jiráks, then the Váchals, then us. So because my father used to go to those farmers, maybe those farmers put wheat there, and over those fences, maybe fifty kilos of flour was brought, and it was hidden with us. So I, when I was in that house -that's why I'm telling this story- we had about three hundred kilos of flour there. And, of course, if they found it, they would hang me."
František Křížek was born on 5 May 1932 in Říčany into the family of the owner of an electrical engineering company. After completing his primary school education, he continued with a one-year apprenticeship course (JUK), which he completed in 1947, and then worked briefly in the family business as an electrician. A year later, he entered the apprenticeship school of electrical engineering, from which he later transferred to the Secondary Industrial School of Electrical Engineering in Prague, where he graduated in 1952. After graduation, he received a placement at the Research Institute of Heavy Engineering, but after two months, he got drafted for two years of military service. He returned to the institute, where he remained until his retirement in 1992. While working, he decided to further his education, and in 1956 he obtained an engineering degree from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University. In 1968, František Křížek became a member of the Club of Committed Non-Partisans (KAN) in Říčany, which had a negative impact on his professional career and his children. He was briefly involved in politics also in the 1990s when he was a member of the ODS (Civic Democratic Party) for two years. František Křížek is an active Sokol member, and for several years he held the position of executive director of the Sokol in Říčany. Almost all his life, he has been involved in tennis competitively and marginally in other sports, including chess. In 2023 he lived in his native Říčany.
František Křížek (in a coat on the left) with his family in front of his house and the fence over which flour was smuggled from Bartoš's mill (in the background), photographed at the end of the 1930s
František Křížek (in a coat on the left) with his family in front of his house and the fence over which flour was smuggled from Bartoš's mill (in the background), photographed at the end of the 1930s
