Ing. Josef Tomica

* 1925  †︎ 2017

  • “We saw them returning to their homes on bicycle, and we thus asked them whether one of them would not be willing to take us to a pub. They replied that they would do it, but that one of them would have to take the bicycle home and come later. They got off the bike and took us to a restaurant. They bought so much food for us that we did not even need so much of it. They were amazing, they wanted to have Czechs.”

  • “I was near the cannon and I lost my finger. I was loading the cannon. The cartridge may have been faulty, I don’t know, but it nipped my finger off. There was a hole in the cartridge, and I put my finger in there, and when the cannon’s lock snapped, it cut my finger off. This way I got to a hospital.”

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    Olomouc, 01.06.2016

    (audio)
    duration: 01:28:01
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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At first in the Wehrmacht, then in the Czechoslovak army

Josef Tomica.JPG (historic)
Ing. Josef Tomica

Josef Tomica was born December 2, 1925 in Karviná in the Těšín region. The area became directly incorporated into the Nazi Germany during WWII. His parents signed the Volksliste, and just like many other young men from the region Josef therefore had to join the wehrmacht. He went through fighting in France before being captured by the British. As a prisoner of war he enlisted in the Czechoslovak independent armoured brigade. During the training he lost part of his finger while loading an anti-tank cannon and he spent some time in hospital. Josef Tomica continued to serve in the army for one more year after his return to Czechoslovakia. In 1946 he began working in the ironworks in Karviná, where he subsequently did several jobs. At the same time, he did distance study at the secondary technical school in Karviná, and he thus completed his secondary school education. In the 1960s he even successfully graduated from distance study at the College of Mining. He became a deputy to the production manager in the steel drawing mill and he was introducing new technologies and machinery into the production. He received several awards for his work. Josef retired in 1987 after forty-one years of working in the ironworks in Karviná. Josef Tomica passed away on July, the 9th, 2017.