Jiří Švejdar

* 1922

Veteran of WW2, eastern front, National minorities, Volhynian Czechs
8. 9. – 1. 11. 1944 - The battle of the Dukla Pass, 1944 - 1945 - The liberation of Czechoslovakia, 30. 5. 1945 – 29. 10. 1946 - Withdrawal of Germans from Czechoslovakia, 10. 7. 1946 – Agreement on Volhynian Czechs option with the USSR, 23. 2. 1949 – Beginning the forced agricultural collectivisation
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    German Visits to the Boratín Church

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    "There were four Germans from the SS who came to our church every Sunday. Fara, Trzeschinka, Bochniczek, and Rudolf. That one was German through and through, he couldn't speak Czech. The other three were from mixed marriages. After church they always stopped by our house for lunch. We distilled some ten liters of liquor for Rudolf to send home to Berlin. One time my sister was sick with typhoid and they happened to visit. Dad told them: 'Don't come in, we have typhoid here!' But Fara came in anyway to have a look at her. He sat down next to her with a thermometer, he measured her temperature, got in his car, and drove off to Luck. He brought some injections and sat with her for two hours, waiting to see if her temperature would go down. It did, so he went out into the courtyard and called out: 'Mister Švejdar, victory.' "

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    Compulsory Post-War Military Training

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    "We were released from service, but they called us to undergo military training all the same. I had some trouble with my stomach, so I had the doctor write me a note excusing me from going anywhere. I took the note to the headquarters, but they just said that anyone could claim that. And that I didn't want to fulfill my duty. So I got angry and started shouting at one of them: 'When I was in the war, you were still in nappies with pictures of Nazdáreček!' ('Helloboy' - transl.) The women in the office started laughing. So in the end I had to go anyway."

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    Childhood - Cinema

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    "We used to go to Luck to the cinema. Among other things, they screened four parts of Tarzan. I was quite a wild child, so after a while it occurred to me to imitate Tarzan. I took a long pointy knife and left for the woods. I climbed a slender tree, got it swinging to and fro and then jumped to the next one. And so on. So I got through the whole forest, it was about 380 metres wide, just along the treetops. Of course I had to rest. And I didn't fall once! Not once. It was an American film, but I can't remember who played in it or anything."

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    Managing Co-op

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    "We moved to Hrušovany in 1945. I was given my own estate, so I started farming. But then they forced us to join the JZD. That was in 1952. You see, my wife was ill, so she couldn't work. And they didn't even give us milk for the children! Add to that the fact that they wore one of my horses to death and broke my tractor. I left the JZD after a year. I tried to manage on my own for another two. In 1955 I fled to Lipkovice. Simply said, I legged it. They skinned me something awful."

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    Threat of Deportation to Sibera

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    "The Russians wanted to transfer some nine of the better-off families of Boratín to Siberia. According to them we were kulaks, because we had a mill and an apothecary in the village. They wanted to make our church into a warehouse, later into a cinema. Dad was a shareholder of the local mill and of the apothecary, so we were supposed to be among those marked for deportation. They even had three wagons ready for us. But because the Germans arrived, then luckily it didn't happen."

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    Nezjištěno, 21.04.2004

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    duration: 01:01:31
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I was lying injured in the infirmary and they kept bringing in people from Dukla I couldn’t listen to the wailing I stole some galoshes, wrapped a rag around my injured leg and I legged it away They removed the shard in Prague, after the war was already over

Švejdar Jiří
Švejdar Jiří
photo: Archiv pamětníka
photo: Archiv pamětníka
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Jiří Švejdar was born on the 24th of May 1922 in Český Boratín, in Volhynia. His father Bedřich made a name for himself as the long-serving mayor of Český Boratín, a courageous diplomat who managed to deal with both the Bolsheviks and the Germans. Jiří Švejdar became orphaned at an early age. When he was eight years old, his mother died from tuberculosis, leaving the family to struggle on alone - the father, Jiří, his brother Miloslav and his sister Lýdie. The Russians wanted to deport his family to Siberia, but, fortunately, they did not have time to put the plan into action. In the spring of 1944, the Soviet Army returned to Volhynia, and the young men of Český Boratín decided en masse to join the 1st. Czechoslovak Army Corps. The volunteers gathered in Mayor Švejdar’s courtyard. After being conscribed in Luck and going through a short training session, Švejdar was made an artillery observer. His first combat experience was at Torčín - he was yet without uniform. He took part in the fighting at Dukla and in Nižný Komárnik. At the end of the war, the unit was on the borders of Bohemia and Moravia. After a short stay in Prague, he was transferred to the Žatec district. He spent some time in Děkov helping a German widow with farm work. Shortly afterwards, he was given a deportee house in Hrušovany to resettle. But the estate was already taken by the gold-digger Hyngar and his family, who were not planning on leaving. Hyngar attempted to change the official decree right until the last moment, even offering bribes, but to no avail. In the first post-war years, Švejdar received help from his rich uncle Josef Opočenský of Prague, most generous financial aid. Švejdar met his wife-to-be Vlasta Víznerová in Hrušovany, but they later moved to Lipkovice, her hometown. Together they raised two sons and two daughters. Before leaving Hrušovany, Švejdar was “plucked clean” by the local JZD (United Agricultural Co-op) and had to start anew.

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