“When they found out that I was a carpenter, I began to be assigned to do carpenter’s work, to explain to the workers what to do and how to work. Like how to make a formwork for concrete constructions, and so on. Towards the end of the war, 1943 through 1944, the company was assigned to build three bridges near Nordhausen. I was in charge of the third one, which was the farthest from Nordhausen, about two or three kilometres, it was a ferroconcrete bridge. At that time, the prisoners from the concentration camp Nordhausen (PT Mittelbau-Dora – ed.´s note) were working on the construction, they were being guarded, but at that time there were already many English and American bombers and fighter planes flying over Germany, and there was fighting, because it was near the Harz Mountains (National Park Hoch Harz und Harz, ed.´s note). The heaviest fighting and air raids occurred there, and therefore we spent more time in hiding, together with the inmates, than actually working. The company arranged my accommodation in a house of one old lady, on the outskirts of the town, so I did not have to walk through the town, but from there I could go directly to the construction site. On my way to work I was passing by a large beet field. When the beetroots grew bigger, the prisoners, when they learnt that I was a Czech, were asking me to bring them some beet, that it was very good and nutritious when cooked. So I began bringing them the beet and every morning we would be cooking some at the workplace. In the building where we had some sort of an office, all of us were then eating it there, including the guards... And I was also rendering other services for them, so to speak. Once they knew that I was a Czech, they were giving me letters to send, I was taking them to the post office and vice versa, when they received mail, I was handing it out to them. At Christmas 1944 I received many packets, obviously, these were packets that I then brought to the prisoners, and when my landlady saw it, she told me: ´It looks like all Europe is thinking of you this Christmas!´ She had no clue, she did not know to whom I was bringing them.”
“We were not allowed to communicate with the Englishmen, it was strictly forbidden, but obviously we did meet them and talk to them. When they discovered that I was from Czechoslovakia, they asked me for help, asking me if I could help them getting some small drugstore items, like toothpaste, toothbrushes, combs, and such, but above all they wanted bread, they did not have enough food.” – “And how were you able to obtain these?” – “In return they were offering me cigarettes, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, or whatever they were receiving in the packages from the International Red Cross once a month. I contacted one Czech, a baker, who was working in one German bakery, and asked him if he could get some bread for me. He said he could do it, and I was giving him what he wanted, chocolate, cigarettes, or whatever the Englishmen had, and we then shared it. Thus in the morning he was bringing me freshly baked bread, and I was then leaving with a rucksack loaded with bread, and giving this to the Englishmen. We had to be very careful, really careful, about the Germans and later also about the Vlasov units. Because the Englishmen disagreed with the Vlasov army, they were saying that the Vlasov men were traitors and that after the war, which would obviously end victoriously for them, Stalin would then hang them all. The Vlasov men were furious and the German guards, who were accompanying the English prisoners, had to keep them back to avoid conflicts.”
“When I came to work in Projekta, we founded a Projekta sports team. With another enthusiast we put together a Sokol club and we established a so-called Sokol chapter, and the members elected me the leader, and this Konrád the chairman.”– “In the 1950s?” – “Thus in the 1950s I was the leader of this chapter, and we began working on it. At first we obtained tables for table tennis, then we built a volleyball court in the yard, we were putting great effort into it and more people were joining us, and we were gradually becoming one of the best teams in soccer, basketball, volleyball, water polo, we also had a tennis team, and we were in the Czech chess league, and in winter we were going skiing. Our company purchased a summer cottage from Bílá labuť. At the time when the club’s activities flourished and when we were at our best, we had a soccer team. We were playing on a soccer field, there were city matches between the companies of Elektročas, Elektrosignal, and Projekta, there were hundreds of us from each company. It was great fun, this volleyball, basketball. But then they merged our club with the Sparta sports club, a truck arrived and we had to load all the balls, equipment, sporting costumes, everything we had, and that was the end of all sport activities in Projekta.”
“It was in 1952, the year of the huge political trials, when the company also had to vote on the agreement with the decision of the Supreme Court, to declare that we agreed with the elimination of the Party’s political opponents. We had to vote on that, but I did not. There were two of us, but it did not matter.” – “Did it have any consequences for you?” - “No, it didn’t. They did not make a fuss about it in the company. Because after all, they had been more or less forced to make this statement of support, and our director was quite reasonable. After all, after 1968, they all supported Dubček, all of them, the director, the technical manager, the production manager, because they were communists, and then they all got kicked out, only the financial manager, who was not a Party member and who had nothing in common with them, remained there after 1968, and he was then managing the company until another director was placed there. What I want to say is that the company executives were not so fanatical to agree with everything.”
“They told me: ´You know, they are now rumours that it was mainly you who was stealing the beetroots, and that you should make some financial compensation at least.´ Well, I began to be a bit afraid, because getting into a prison at that time might not have been safe at all. I decided I had to leave. By chance, the boss from Halle, ing. Zaspal, arrived to see the construction site. He was a good man. I had been giving him some English cigarettes from time to time because I had many good cigarettes from the fine places in the world which were under the English dominion, which I was receiving in exchange for bread and other things. So I would give him a cigarette once in a while, and he was kind to me and he treated me well, and so he wrote a leave permit for me. And based on this leave permit I was then allowed to buy a ticket at the railway station, but when I came there, I was told that they were no civilian trains going from Nordhausen to Dresden anymore, only the military ones. The Red Army was approaching, basically, and they did not sell me any ticket, so what was I to do – I took my bag and little food, and I decided I would just have to take the risk and go somehow. I found a military transport train bound for Dresden, and I sneaked in, so that they would not see me and arrest me, I got between two wagons, and I luckily arrived to Dresden. Nobody noticed me. In Dresden I got off, and at the station I asked whether there were any civilian trains for Prague, and as if I knew it, they were not. One railway worker told me that there was an empty cargo train going to Prague via Vienna, it was empty or just with very little load. I found an empty car, which was roofed, and I thought that right after crossing the border I would jump out and get home in a few days, but in half an hour I was freezing, it was in February and it was still very cold. Fortunately no one saw me, I was lucky for the second time and I eventually arrived to the Masaryk station in Prague. Nobody was getting off, only me. I got off and I was at home. I thought that it was dangerous, since I was at home illegally, but my friend whom I met assured me that it was fine just to go to the authorities and tell them that I had escaped fleeing the Red Army, and that it would be all right. ´They will just take your name, make a note and it’ll be OK. And you will get ration stamps.´ So I did, and they did not make any problems. ´We have no job for you, but here are your stamps for food and cigarettes.´”
Ing. Josef Jiroušek was born November 17th, 1920 in the village of Kosobudy. He learned the carpenter‘s trade, then he studied at the higher industrial school of construction. He completed his education by graduating from the Faculty of architecture. He assisted with the construction of the Czech Technical University in 1959 when he became a civil engineer. In February 1943, he was sent to Germany where he endured forced labor. His first assignment was in Halle, where he worked for a construction company as a carpenter, later he built casings and formworks for the Normawekr factory. There he also met several English prisoners. He exchanged goods with these POWs and delivered to them what they needed - hygienic supplies and food. While there he also met another Czech, who was working as a baker and who was providing Josef with bread for the English captives. It was also because of this man that Josef became involved in dealing with ration stamps. The Germans discovered this scheme and most of those involved in the case ended up in German prisons. Luckily, Josef Jiroušek escaped punishment. He was then sent to work all over Germany, among others he was also working in a factory producing synthetic petrol in the town of Leuna near Merseburg. His last work assignment was in Nordhausen, where he was sent at the turn of 1943. As a carpenter, he built bridges and his last post was on the construction of a tunnel, which was alleged to be used for railways. Josef Jiroušek escaped from there because he had been helping prisoners from the nearby Mittelbau-Dora camp, where he was a foreman at the construction site. He was bringing them beetroots from a nearby field, and the damage to the crops was allegedly so high that the owners of the field demanded compensation from the labor camp,Josef Jiroušek was then discovered as the culprit. In February 1945, he escaped to Czechoslovakia. Local labor authorities did not question him about the true reason for his return to Germany, and Josef Jiroušek lived safely till the end of the war. After the war, he went through a shortened military service duty (as a sapper) in Litoměřice. In November 1949, he began working as a draftsman in the Zbrojovka Brno factory, which shortly after changed its name to Projekta - State Engineering Bureau. He was also active in the restoration efforts of the Sokol movement in Prague. During that time, the organization system of sport institutions did not permit the association‘s independent existence, and the Sokol organization thus came to an end. In 1959, he completed his university studies and he became a manager of a project group, which specialized in construction work for the heavy and armaments industries. In 1985, he retired (after five years of overtime). One of his last projects before retiring was the building of the Aeronautical Research Institute in Prague-Letňany.
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