Only the Máca family and the Šmíd family escaped the expulsion of Germans from Otín
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Josef Máca was born on February 22, 1932 in Otín, Vysočina. The village was mostly inhabited by Germans. His mother was German, his father was Czech. They owned a small farm, mother took care of the household. Josef had two brothers and German was spoken at home. He started attending the municipal school during the Protectorate in nearby Stonařov. The family survived the war and the liberation by the Red Army without any problems. Serious difficulties befell the family with the arrival of the Czech Revolutionary Guards, who disguised themselves as partisans and spread terror among the German population in the Highlands after the war. Josef experienced the confiscation and looting of German property, the seizure of cottages, the beating and killing of Germans and their forced removal to Slavonice. From there, the Germans from Otín and the surrounding area were forced to return on foot to the camp in Stonarów. There many of them were executed. Only the Máca family and the Czech-German Šmíd family escaped deportation from Otín. At this time, his parents sent Josef Máca to relatives in the purely Czech town of Chlum to learn Czech. After returning home, he began to work manually. First he worked in the Bohumín ironworks, then he worked in the Jihlava textile factory and in the PAL company, and finally he worked as a forestry worker. After 1948 Máca experienced forced collectivisation. His father, as a small farmer, resisted joining the JZD (Unified Agriculture Cooperative) for a long time. It was only when he was unable to fulfil his deliveries that he succumbed to the pressure. From 1953 to 1955, Josef Máca completed basic military service in Železná Ruda. After returning to civilian life, he married and worked for the State Forests for over thirty years until his retirement.