Zdeněk Krůpa

* 1929

  • “Dad had these stocky stallions, chestnuts. And they had amazing manes. When they were grazing, I learnt to climb higher up along the mane until I saw the strap, so I pulled it, he raised his head, and I ended up on his back. And one time Dad said to Mum – she told me about it later on: ‘How did that lad get on to the horse when I didn’t sit him up there?’ The horses grazed behind the barn, and he went to look around the corner and saw that I had climbed on to the horse. I loved horses, I did until the end. But I also had some nice stocky chestnuts on the farm. And then I had to let them go. The worst was that I had to let the last horses go when I retired. I had to give my last horses away... That was pretty bad, but oh well... Then Zdeňa had two again. I always say that when the last horse leaves the stable, I’ll die.”

  • “Two cars drove in to the yard and ten cops got out. Two of them lined us up against the wall, me with Zdeněk in my arms. My wife held the younger one, he was eight months old. My parents stood next to us. Two gendarmes on either side, and the rest rushed into the stable. They led the cattle out and took them round through the back gate. There were people from the Zašová co-op waiting behind the barn to take the cattle from them. And they objected that... we didn’t take anything from you... But they wanted the property. And they kept saying they weren’t preparing anything, oh no, that they wouldn’t join the co-op, and in the end they had a place ready for the cattle in one of the neighbours’ barns for more than a month. It was us and one Trčka, who had a large farm, at the lower end of Opálky. There was a farm there too. They herded it all in to the barn. So they deceived us. And while this annihilation was underway, they made a big noise. You know, it was kind of a show, so everyone would see it. There were people right in our yard, at the neighbour’s house, and in the street. And Novák yelled: ‘Do you see? This is how you’ll all end up if you don’t join the cooperative!’ So the people reckoned, they’ll do this to us... They came to herd our cattle away, and the others had to hand theirs over themselves.”

  • “It absorbed him completely... He had to keep thinking about it. And so I told him: ‘Dad, we can’t keep doing this.’ That was in ’57, when they were openly talking of destroying us. When it was clear. But the Communists approach was like this: first, they set to undermining the village community. Put the small people against the farmers, and those against the larger ones. And they were successful with that. They’d just say: ‘The farmers have cattle, they have fields.’ But I told the chairman [ofthe local national committee - trans.]: ‘Those are operating materials. Can a co-op function without machines, cattle?’ But they misused it. I told the chairman: ‘Look, Mr Chairman, I attend funerals, and I’ve never seen them ever put a cow into someone’s grave, or a pig or a hen. So what’re you saying that farmers... Everyone was basically just a temporary administrator of their farm. And it mattered in what condition they passed it on to those who came next.’”

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    Zašová, 03.05.2018

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    duration: 02:09:58
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We have to destroy you, and we’ll do so with all means possible

Krůpa Zdeněk
Krůpa Zdeněk
photo: archiv pamětníka

Zdeněk Krůpa was born on 26 February 1929 in Zašová near Rožnov pod Radhoštěm in Moravian Wallachia. He was the second of six children of Alois and Růžena Krůpa. He attended an agricultural school in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and then started farming. In 1952 to 1953 he underwent compulsory military service in Šumperk. In 1958 he was declared a kulak, although the actual owner of the farm was still his father. Their fields were confiscated and their cattle and horses seized. They were only allowed to stay in the village thanks to the proletariat origin of his wife Milada (née Uličníková). The property was not transferred from father to son until 1962. The witness was employed at the state farm in Kelč for several years. He was not allowed to work at the Zašová farming cooperative so as not to disrupt the morale of the cooperative members there. During the massive mechanisation of agriculture, he left the state farm in Krhová. He then found employment as a wagon driver at Zašová State Forests. He hauled lumber with horses until 1983, when he suffered an accident that barred him from continuing his job. He and his wife raised five children.