Jindřich Pochožaj

* 1933

  • "We had a pig hidden in the barn and there were already German horses on that threshing floor. The soldiers were already there. The mother always went quietly, when they were not there, to feed the pig. The day they left, it shot a barn and the pig was wounded. So we had to kill that pig. Here they use water for pouring over the pig, but we were using burning here, which was a problem. There was the river Ikva and around it a swamp. The Germans tore down the track and got to the old Austrian fortress, where they stayed for three weeks. They had binoculars and walked to the attic, which was accessed from the outside. They had to come there in the dark and guard it there. And as something rustled, the Germans fired. Soviet engineers had trouble getting through them. It took three weeks and then the Germans left. "

  • "It was raining. My father was in Russia for training, where he was sent, as usual. Brother, he was nine years older, so he wasn't home and I was just with my mom. It was raining and the Germans knocked on the window, "Mutr soldat schlafen." The barn was locked with such a large lock. I said, 'Mom, you must go and open the door. There's nothing you can do. ‘And in the morning we stood and the cow was hanged etc. But they didn't take anything from us. We had two cows, pigs. But then after a while they came: 'Schweinen.' German. We had a pig, so they released him, shot him and took it. That was a tough regime. "

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Kamenná, 11.01.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:12:58
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I was afraid to tell my parents that my brother had fallen, so I sucked for a while

Jindřich Pochožaj, historical photography
Jindřich Pochožaj, historical photography
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Jindřich Pochožaj was born on January 20, 1933 in the village of Český Straklov in Volhynia in what was then Poland (now Ukraine). The parents were of different nationalities. Mother Anna‘s was Czech and his father Jefrem was Ukrainian. In 1944, his brother Boris, who was nine years older, joined the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps. He fell in the ranks of an independent tank brigade on April 24, 1945 during the liberation of the village of Velká Polom. In 1947, the family re-emigrated to Czechoslovakia and settled in the village of Kamenná depopulated after the expulsion of the Germans. After studying at the Mechanical Engineering School, Jindřich Pochožaj worked for 40 years in the local ironworks and wireworks. First as chief mechanic and then master. At the time of filming in 2022, he still lived in Kamenná. In the house where he and his wife Anna raised their two daughters, Lenka and Jindřiška.