František Mráz

* 1934

  • „Třeba můj děda, když jsem odcházel s maminkou, v devětatřicátým roku jsme uvažovali, jestli máme jít do Československa nebo ne. A můj děda mi říkal: ,Féro, choďte do Česká republika! Česká republika je druhá Amerika!´ Že je to vyspělý jako průmyslová zem, a že se tam lidi mají moc dobře. On to znal jako voják. On asi musel být tady někde v Čechách. Tehdy byly ty armády, to už si nepamatuju tak daleko."

  • „A ještě tak asi kilometr od nás byl jeden bohatý baron, a ten měl asi sto hektarů pole. A až za naší dědinu asi dva kilometry, protože jsme tam chodili do toho města, tam bylo melounový pole. A ty Němci zřejmě, ne, že mně, ale to jsem se dozvěděl od starých chlapů, protože tehdy chlapi se sešli po, už válka bylo pryč, že, už potom my jsme o válce nevěděli nic, když se bili tam u Dunaje v Maďarsku a tak, no. A oni ty němečtí letadla začaly bombardovat to melounový pole. Protože si mysleli, že tam leží vojáci. Že mají helmy. To jsem se dozvěděl od dědy a od strýca. Proč bombardovali to melounový pole."

  • „Pravou válku jsme poznali, až se už fronta vracela. A tam začala zuřit ta válka. Třeba jsem viděl, jak ty němečtí vojáci měli ty Sajdky, ty motorky. A ty ruští vojáci, to, to si dovedl teprve jako teď uvědomit, ne pozdějš, až jsem byl dospělý, jsem uvědomil, co se vlastně dělo. Tak třeba ty němečtí vojáci měli na těch kulometech, teda na těch motorkách, namontovaný kulomety. A jak ty Rusi se shromáždili a šli dopředu, za frontou, to byli ty dodatečný vojáci, který se uzdravili. No. A oni se seřadili do čety nebo roty, to už si, až jsem byl na vojně. Oni s tím kulometem postříleli já nevím kolik těch vojáků, a oni tam padali na ulici, a oni nasedli na ty Sajdky a odjeli pryč."

  • "They were gathering in the village and divided the soldiers in single houses. They brough all the wounded ones and those, who died, got burried in the cemetary. They they created a kind of a unit and returned via Ukraine back to Russia. Then came the Russian Cossacks and it was a terrible unit, the gangsters. They gathered cattle round the village and chased it away. They gathered young boys, who then had to chase cattle through Ukraine because it was close. They took everything, clock, or rings from the women."

  • "They would not let us bring the wheat home and took it directly at the combine. And people in our hamlet were already hungry and began to rebel. The guys protested at the municipal office during and killed an officer. But they immediately called in troops from Salonta and they came there and started shooting at people, and shot 19 people dead in 1949 and the rest were loaded into a truck and taken to the district center for questioning. And there was my mom too. Anna and I were cried that we were alone. About four days later women got released. Guys I do not know, but they let most of them go back."

  • "They came to our village and shot all the managing workers and those, who stood against them as we were hungry. So for example mum and I we beat the grain and got 49 hundredweight of wheat. But then we were five hundredweight short and uncle had to sell our cow so that we could provide our ratio. So they took everything from us."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Bernartice, 22.03.2017

    (audio)
    duration: 02:41:23
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Jeseník, 04.07.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 02:17:22
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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During collectivisation they were shooting in the crowd of people here

František Mráz in the army
František Mráz in the army
photo: archiv pamětníka

František Mráz was born on 24 December, 1934 in the village of Bicaci (Bikači in Slovak, Mezőbikács in Hungarian) in Bihar county in Rumania. He belonged to the local Slovak community, which amounted to around 30 thousand people back then. His native village was isolated from other Slovak villages as it was down in a valley and its development was quite different from other Slovak villages. The Slovaks lived together with other Hungarians and Rumanians in the same village. During war his father joined the Hungarian army and fought in the front for a while. Near the end of war he ran home and kept hiding until liberation. In 1946 the father and a part of the family left for Czechoslovakia; the mother with the daughter and František Mráz remained in Rumania. They experienced collectivisation in the village of Bikač. Back then the offices were taking all the crops from people. During the protests hungry citizens killed an officer. In response to that, soldiers rushed into the village and began shooting in the crowd. After the slaughter nineteen men and women were shot dead. Others, amongst them also the mother of the witness, were then loaded up on trucks and taken away. The mother and a part of the captured persons were lucky enough and got back in four days. Yet several farmers ended up in labour camps and none of them ever got back to Bikač. In 1949 the rest of the family managed to travel to Czechoslovakia and they lived together in a border town of Vidnava. In 1954 during an obligatory military service the witness joined the parachutes and then was recommended to study at the Army Political Training Centre of Josef Haken in Roudnice nad Labem. Following two years of study he became a political commissioner. Finally he didn’t start an active service in the function as in 1958 there was a reorganisation of the 22nd airborne brigade and reducing the number of policy commissioners, so František Mráz got civil work. In 2017 he still lived in Vidnava.