Melchior Sikora

* 1937

  • "At that time, I went to an industrial school, to an upper industrial school in Karviná. And as of January 1, 68, the situation eased. Dubcek became the first secretary, so at school I thought I could not stand it, because at school it turned out in such a way that we will be a role model in Europe, we will all look at us as we do socialism with a human face. I was the only Pole in that class and I said, 'Guys, don't believe what's going on. You have to think and not be such that we will do it all. We won't do anything! Brezhnev is able to provoke a third world war because we said that if we left the Warsaw Pact immediately, we would be neutral.“

  • "The Germans turned the Silesians here in the Těšín region into Germans, and when they took the Volkslist, they were well off, and those who did not take the Volkslist had a problem. They either locked him up or took him to a concentration camp or just that. And most importantly, when the families had kids, they had to go to the Wehrmacht. Well, after the war it was again, when the new establishment came, they had a problem that they were in the Wehrmacht. Well, that's right, Uhlíř promised the Poles, because most Poles were here, he promised that if he won the election, he would drive them all to Poland. Well, when the communists wanted to win the elections in the year 1947 or 1948, they turned to the Poles and assured them that if they won the election, none would go to Poland, no Poles would export to Poland, so communists won the elections in Karviná.“

  • "During the war, we had German friends and my mother, when they locked her up, the local Germans helped us, I can't say; because the Germans weren't all fascists, such Kretkas or Kocúrkovs, they were Germans and they helped us. So I only speak well of these people, and when Russians came in 1945 after the war, all the Germans had to wear the letter „N“ on their sleeves. When my mother found out, she immediately went to a gentleman who spoke perfect Russian, and they took the lady Kretková and Mr. Kretek, they dragged them to the Vachtuba, where the Soviets were, where they already ruled this city, and immediately ensured that they were given rumors to avoid wearing the N.

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    Karviná, 14.04.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 35:40
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Nationality cannot be changed

Melchior Sikora today
Melchior Sikora today
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Melchior Sikora was born on January 24, 1937 in Poland near Wadowice. He grew up only with his mother and brothers. In June 1939, the family moved to Fryštát (today‘s Karviná) in the then Polish Těšín region. In the next three months, war broke out and the territory was occupied by the German army. During the Nazi occupation within the so-called Volkslist, the Sikors declared their Polish nationality and their mother ended up in prison. Melchior trained as a metallurgist and worked as a miner from 1961 to 1985. In 1978, he traveled to England with his uncle. In 2021 he lived in Karviná.