Jindřich Novotný

* 1940

  • „My jsme osidlovali vlastně německé pohraničí. Moje matka říkala, když se někdy bavila s otcem, že ji nikdo nedostane do toho německého Broumova, ale nakonec se tam i ona vydala. Říkala, že do Broumova chodili sokolové z Velkého Poříčí podporovat akce Čechů, kteří byli v Broumově za první republiky. Takže třeba říkala, že je na Pasách čeští četníci nechtěli pustit do Broumova. V roce 1933 tam probíhala v Broumově stávka textiláků, tak nějak jsme drželi s těmi i Čechy, i Němci, když se jednalo o zlepšení životních podmínek těch textiláků, tak textiláci z Hronova a Poříče jeli podpořit své, a bylo zajímavé, jak policajti bránili Čechům, aby pomáhali v té stávce.“

  • „Veba dokonce tenkrát měla úžasný zvuk, to byly takzvané údernice. Některé přadleny pracovaly velmi rychle a ve velkém množství a měly také větší výplaty. Psalo se o nich v novinách a podobně, zkrátka to bylo takzvané údernické hnutí. Jednou z takových známých údernic byla třeba Emilie Šulcová nebo Anna Vacková, ta byla vůbec nejlepší. Ta měla za účasti dalších spoludělnic asi padesát stavů. Zkrátka údernické hnutí Veby bylo vzorem pro druhé spolupracovníky. Někdy se ve Vebě objevil ministr školství Zdeněk Nejedlý, takže ta Veba byla – bavlnářské závody Veba – Broumov, závody Zdeňka Nejedlého.“

  • "I remember them running on the road, the Germans were running from the Russian army from Germany, there from abroad, as if from today's Poland. Well, I remember that they also drove such poor people, and they were probably prisoners from concentration camps and labour camps that were in Germany, so it was also so sad. And the fact is that our people were again so kind that they gave them to the poor people who were driven, I remember who had anything to eat, that they were given something to eat. The guards who led them, the poor people, they more or less even tolerated it, they didn't have it anymore... They already knew that it would be bad for them, so they didn't even prevent it. And I was looking at this from the window, for example."

  • "And then came the year 1945, the great powers decided that all the Germans, the fascists, who were guilty in various ways, those would be deported to Germany. There were trains here at our station, guards from Prague also arrived, they were the so-called RG, the Red Guards were called that, and they were guarding them. From the city, they took German residents to the abandoned camp of former French prisoners and concentrated them there. And after a while they always took a certain transport to the train at the station and from there the transports went from Broumov to Germany. I remember that we were like little boys, when I wasn't going to school yet, so we went there to the field and looked towards the camp, I don't know why we went there."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Broumov

    (audio)
    duration: 01:28:48
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 2

    Velké Poříčí, 18.07.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 02:07:46
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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I didn’t hate the Germans

Jindřich Novotný during the interview in July 2023
Jindřich Novotný during the interview in July 2023
photo: Post Bellum / Michal Homola

Jindřich Novotný was born on June 22, 1940 in Velké Poříčí near Hronov. His father worked in a textile factory in Malé Poříčí and during World War II he was forcibly deployed in the then German Empire. Jindřich recalls the liberation by the Soviet army in 1945 and the fighting at the border in nearby Bělovs near Náchod on May 9, 1945. Before that, he also saw with his own eyes the impoverished prisoners, who were probably led by soldiers from a concentration camp in today’s Polish territory. In 1945, he moved with his parents to Broumov to a house after the displaced Germans, where he entered a boys’ primary school and subsequently at the so-called eleven-grade school. He graduated from a higher pedagogical school in Prague, approving history, civics and geography. He started teaching in Police nad Metují, then moved to Broumov. In 1959 he enlisted in the war in Janovice nad Úhlavou and served on the western border, experiencing increased combat readiness during the Cuban and Berlin crises. He also recalls the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968, when cargo planes with military equipment flew over the Broumov area and Polish soldiers marched towards Náchod. Until his retirement, he taught at the primary school in Broumov, where he still lives. Together with his wife raised three sons. In 1996, he had a heart attack on the street and was saved by a casual passer-by. He is a widower and actively participates in writing the Chronicle of Broumov.