Dominik Linke

* 1934

  • “The stay in Mongolia was one of the worst periods in my life. In 1966 or 1967 they accommodated us in a hotel in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, and the hotel was luxurious by their standards. We slept on mats on the floor, and they only gave us a little roller to put under our neck instead of a pillow, there were no beds. We ate mutton or camel meat all the time. They served us coffee to drink, but the Mongolians were adding camel milk into it. It became curdy and it stank terribly. They loved it so much, but I hated it. Coal was discovered there, and it is still being processed even today. When it got to the surface, it deteriorated into dust. They wanted to make briquettes from the coal and use it as a fuel.”

  • “Although Ukraine was already occupied by Germany, the Nazis did not confiscate anything from Swedes, because they were neutral, and they allowed one Swedish nobleman to stay in the General Governorate. This nobleman wished to breed a batch of beautiful Arabian horses. My father was an expert on agriculture, and the nobleman thus invited him to his estate. Dad then worked as the administrator of this Swede’s estate and he bred about six hundred gorgeous Arabian horses. I learnt to ride a horse there. It was wonderful.”

  • “We basically remained alone, and the front was approaching. We thus decided to go back to Frýdlant in Bohemia. We rode the train in several sections: at first to Lvov, then from Lvov to Krakow, and meanwhile we would always stay somewhere for a week and live in somebody’s home. It was horrible. Nobody gave us any food, any we had to obtain it ourselves by various means. I confess that I have stolen a hen from one farmwife so that we would have something to eat. The front was very close; we could even hear the shooting.”

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    byt pamětníka, 30.03.2015

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    délka: 34:27
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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My father bred about six hundred beautiful Arabian horses during the war

Dominik Linke as a young man
Dominik Linke as a young man

  Dominik Linke (born 1934 in Piešťany) spent part of the Second World War at a large estate near the Ukrainian town Buchach, where his father bred Arabian horses for a Swedish nobleman. At the end of the war his father got to Great Britain and he joined the Czechoslovak exile army there. This was probably the reason why Dominik was later not admitted to study at a university; instead, after graduation from secondary technical school of mechanical engineering, he worked in a factory which produced machines for textile industry, and then in the Škoda factory. Dominik graduated from the company‘s college, he took part in a number of work stays abroad, and he solved many technologically demanding assignments. He suffered from work-related health issues, and he had to undergo a surgery and receive spa treatment in Karlovy Vary which consisted in drinking mineral water from the local springs. He eventually settled in Karlovy Vary and he accepted a job offer from the local District Construction Company, in which he then worked until his retirement. In 1988 he became the first person in the Karlovy Vary region who got issued a free trade license, and he started his own business: his contracts include the construction of a swimming pool, reconstruction of the spa building Smetana, or the installation of a sewer system, water piping and water-supply tank in the village Potůčky.