Ing. Zdeněk Mrňa

* 1950

  • One week, the Red Army suddenly appeared in Znojmo in front of the District Court. They stayed there and pointed (guns) at the court. They stood there like that for several days. But most importantly, they occupied Znojmo. They put howitzers six kilometres from Znojmo. It was on the road leading from Moravský Krumlov to Znojmo. We took the bus every morning, I mean people who worked in Znojmo and us students. And of course, we went back home from Znojmo by bus. After about a week, Soviet soldiers suddenly jumped out of the windbreaks and let us all get off the bus, searched all of us, and let us get on again. And off we went. That is why we were late for school."

  • “The farm was doing well. He had cows, so he had to supply milk. He had fields, so he had to supply corn. Our grandfather, Mr. Vávra managed to meet the supplies, so we did not have problems with them. It was going well, it was. However, all of a sudden, collectivization started and as my mum said, two men wearing black leather coats appeared in the village and started to agitate. They started to work on the establishment of a cooperative and collectivization. The way it also happened elsewhere, they chose – and Thank God, our family was not affected by it; but they chose three farmers there who were accused of failing to meet the supplies. Whether it was a real accusation or not, we know that everything was prepared and faked."

  • "We were staying in a hotel in Hamburg and Mr. Fabian who had accommodated us there came on 17 November in the morning with some news. He started to talk to us, we could speak German, but he was a Czech-American, so he could speech Czech well. We of course did not believe it. We did not know what it was… And most of all, we became really scared. Our children were at home. All of it. Our family. There were no mobile phones to call them. Nothing. So, we were there and monitored it.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Brno, 10.02.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 03:14:46
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - JMK REG ED
  • 2

    Brno, 14.02.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 02:04:36
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - JMK REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I tried to avoid wealth without work, business without morals, and worshipping without sacrifice

Zdeněk Mrňa (foreground) during a company party at S Morava Leasing
Zdeněk Mrňa (foreground) during a company party at S Morava Leasing
zdroj: wintness´s archive

Zdeněk Mrňa was born on 22 May 1950 in Znojmo. His family moved often; however, he spent most of his childhood in Těšenice in the area of Znojmo. In the mid-1960s Zdeněk Mrňa studied at the Secondary School of Economy in Znojmo. After the secondary school-leaving exam in 1969, he started to work at the Faculty of Operations and Economics at the School of Agriculture in Brno. In 1974, he started his basic military service in Boletice military area in the Bohemian Forest Mountains. When he returned, he got married to Dagmar Hrnčířová whom she had met at university. Their daughter Kristýna was born in 1977, and their son Vojtěch was born two years later. Until 1989 he worked as an economist at the state farm in Znojmo. In 1991 he founded the leasing company S Morava Leasing, which was a subsidiary of the Austrian banking group Sparkasse Weinviertler. He worked there until 2012. S Morava Leasing was one of the first leasing companies in the Czech Republic, it was active for almost thirty years.