Either you went voluntarily to the Czechoslovak army, or you were mobilized by the Russians So you chose the lesser of two evils
Teofil Dražil was born on February 7, 1925 in České Noviny in Volynia. His father was a farmer. After the arrival of the Russians in 1939 he attended a Polish school. Dražil describes how the Nazis were welcomed by Ukrainians, and how that attitude gradually changed. After the Russian re-occupation of the region, he entered the Czechoslovak army. He went through the training in Besarabia, and was sent to the front in September 1944. He was injured almost immediately near Kobylany. Together with other injured soldiers, he was taken to Omsk, where he spent the winter of 1944/1945. In March he joined the army again. After the war he served in the Žatec region as a controller of local garrisons. Once completed with his commitment to the army, he worked shortly as an estate manager, and decided to settle in the Czechoslovak Republic. He lived in Jílové near Děčín until the death of his wife, and worked for the hydraulic structures company for 30 years. In 1997 he moved into an assisted living home in Děčín.