Leo Cechel

* 1942

  • "Once I got into the gas area. Since methane was in the mine, which is lighter than air, it stays above and carbon dioxide drops down, carbon monoxide is as heavy as air, so it's in the whole profile, and there's hydrogen sulfide. Well, and I got it ... we used to make security drills when it was dug out. So I was there for some time so that we would not hit detritus during drilling. Detritus is a drained horizon of sand and gas. Well, we had the machine, and I got the methane under the ceiling. Indeed, as I say, I flew into the light. And interestingly, you will be remembering your whole life within a short while. Really such a movie, I do not know what it is based on. And we were there. There was another older pitman with me. And it seemed to him that I was under the ceiling, he called me. And when he called me, I let go off the ladder, and I was a bit lower and there was no more methane."

  • „As we were coming back from holidays, the Polish checked on us at the Moravian borders. And I got a memory, how we took one with a large suitcase, a man around fifty years old. I figured that they were checking us and we took that man, who did not know what was in the suitcase. But they were Polish and I came from that region so could speak some of their language. They were just asking where we were coming from. So we said that we were returning from holidays and they let us go.”

  • "Jaroslav Jirout, my father-in-law, lived between 1913 and 1963. He died when he was fifty years old following a brain tumour surgery. Of course, there were also the tribulations of the war and other things playing an important role. And also the fact that after February 1948, being a Western soldier, he had to leave the police, and he was passing through life. I would come back to that topic later. After the war, he did not like talking about the war suffering, not at all. As stated in the Confirmation of the Ministry of National Defence, during the Second World War he behaved reliably and bravely. He received numerous war decorations, and later I would mention more details. He was also wounded a few times - the shards in the head in Tobruk, shoulder shot in Dunkerk, and numerous minor injuries about which nobody knew."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    v ZŠ Pod Marjánkou, 07.11.2017

    (audio)
    délka: 01:11:25
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

One would give his life for another down the shaft. And life was actually at stake there.

Leo Cechel was born on 11 April, 1942 in Karviná-Ráj. Originally he wished to become a teacher, but he changed his plans after war. Due to the economic situation he began working in the Ostrava-Karviná mines, and continues for seventeen more years. At the beginning of 1980s he changed to the ministry in Prague, where he remained until retirement. During employment he managed several distant studies; he graduated middle industrial school of mining, faculty of law and philosophy. His wife was Naděžda, néé Jiroutová. His father-in-law, Jaroslav Jirout, left in 1939 abroad and joined the Foreign Legion. Therefore he took part in the fights of Tobruk or Dunkerk and was wounded several times. After 1948 he was persecuted and died in 1963 following an operation of a brain tumour.