Josef Ohnheiser

* 1932

  • "Mom said that the guards and militiamen in the prison camp kept drining a lot. One day, they had a group of men stand to attention in a courtyard. And the others had to watch how the second one was ordered to kill the first one. There was gallows, he led him there and hanged him. Then he returned to the line and this way, they had them done in all by the morning."

  • "Mom sent us to uncle Hubert to Ludgeřovice, to ask for a little flour. So that she could bake something for us. We went to uncle's and asked for flour. 'I'm not giving anything to German kids, nor will I sell.' He kicked us out and we went home. That was our Czech uncle."

  • At the cemetery fence, there was a hole dug out. Well, a grave. And in that grave, father's casket lay, it was made of plain boards. No paint. No flowers. No priest. Behind the fence, a few children stood, they held onto the fence and observed us, motionless. I still remember this scene. It's like that scene in Franz Kafka's The Process, when they lead Josef K. upstairs and around the railing around the stairs, small children stand and watch carefully."

  • "That man came to our kitchen, aimed a gun at our father and told him to undress. Dad asked why. The man insisted and kept pointing the gun at him. Dad took of his jacket, then he had to take his shirt off. 'Hands up,' the man ordered. Dad raised his hands and that man checked his armpits. Later on, I learned that the SS members had tattoos in their armpits."

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    Ostrava, 15.11.2018

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    délka: 03:54:36
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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Empathy, compassion with the weak. When humankind does this, we can all live well

Josef Ohnheiser in 1948
Josef Ohnheiser in 1948
zdroj: archiv Josefa Ohnheisera

Josef Ohnheiser was born on the 23rd of April in 1923 in Stará Ves nad Ondřejnicí to a German speaking family. The Ohnheiser family were the only Germans in the village, their sons grew up in a Czech language environment and they spoko both Czech and German. When the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was established, Josef Ohnheiser had to start attending German language schools. In August 1944, he witnessed air raids on Ostrava and environs. In March/April 1945, he witnessed the fights of the Moravia–Ostrava Offensive. After the end of WWII, the family was expelled from their mill. Mr. Ohnheiser, witness’ father, was imprisoned in the chateau in Stará Ves nad Ondřejnicí, he went through interrogations and on the 12th of June, 1945, he died. The rest of the family moved to their grandma to Petřkovice by Hlučín. Josef apprenticed as an automobile repairman and then studied at a high school. After the August 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia, he emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany.