Fred Matal

* 1928

  • "It was a trip to Yugoslavia, but with a one-day trip to Venice. I was hoping it would work out this time. We were supposed to leave Yugoslavia at five in the morning, but we didn't leave until ten o'clock. Everyone saw that I was carrying a bag with me, and many asked what I had there. I said that they were nylon shirts, it was a novelty then, and that I wanted to sell them and buy something. When we arrived in Venice, I parted from our expedition. I put my things in the locker at the station. But I was unlucky, and I met the members of our group once again. When I got rid of them, I went to the station, picked up my stuff and bought a ticket to Milan to be away from Venice fast."

  • "The year 1948 came and the lieutenants who fought on the Western Front began to be fired at the academy. I criticized it in enlightenment classes. I asked why they expel people who fought for our freedom. It went so far that I was fired from the military academy. I was demoted in front of the whole platoon. The commander tore off my shoulder straps. We had two stripes because I was in the second grade. He didn't do well on the other arm."

  • "We went to the rectory, where we were ordered to go somewhere or find out something. In the forest in Hranice, in the area of the Maleník mountains, there was an ammunition depot during the war. It was transported there from the border station by trucks. We lived nearby. For example, I took a teapot, picked up some raspberries or strawberries, and went as close as possible to the warehouse. There were soldiers standing there, several times they caught me and said I had nothing to do there, so I quickly ran away. And the next day I reported to the priest Bartošík what it looked like and whether the amount ammunition was increasing."

  • Full recordings
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    v Ostravě, 03.10.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 02:38:23
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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It wasn’t easy in America, but I felt free

Fred Matal around 1948
Fred Matal around 1948
photo: Archiv Freda Matala

Fred Matal was born as Ladislav Matejčuk on June 8, 1928 in Uzhhorod in Subcarpathian Ruthenia. His father worked there as a post office clerk. After the Munich Agreement and the Vienna Arbitration, which decided to annex parts of Subcarpathian Ruthenia to Hungary, the family moved to relatives in Hranice na Moravě in 1938. The witness and his father helped the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II. After graduation, he was accepted to the military academy in Hranice. He was demoted in 1949 and expelled from his studies for criticizing the communist purges in the army. In 1955 he was sentenced to six months unconditionally for associating against the republic. In 1974 he emigrated to the USA. He changed his name to Fred Matal. In America, he made a living as a gardener, worker or accountant. For the past ten years, he has worked as a clerk in a library in New York. In 2008 he returned to the Czech Republic.