František Paluska

* 1950

  • "It was pretty good at the military service. Only they wanted to push me into schools. Either for three years in Russia or for five years in East Germany. So I ran away from the military service. And there was only one way to escape, and that was to go work on uranium. So I went to work in the uranium mines."

  • "I was a driver. I transported goods, for example matches from Sušice to England. From Strakonice, motorbikes to England. And on this occasion, I visited the grave of our paratroopers who assassinated Heydrich, in Leamington, England. The memorial was paid for by a collection of Czechoslovaks who lived abroad."

  • "The family felt it because Daddy had a worse job, we were more like outccats because they didn't like Daddy defending his truth. That Beneš did sign it, but that he only signed the decision, the Beneš Decrees, otherwise it was approved by the superpowers. The victorious powers approved the Beneš Decrees. He is there only by signing."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Plánice, 06.12.2024

    (audio)
    délka: 23:20
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

My father lost his job because he attended the funeral of Edvard Beneš

Soldier František Paluska
Soldier František Paluska
zdroj: Witness´s archive

František Paluska was born on 1 November 1950 in Ostrava. His father served in the Western Resistance during the World War II. He served in Leamington, England, and took part in the fighting at Dunkirk. He met his wife, witness´s mother, at the end of the war in the Pilsen region during the liberation of Czechoslovakia. After the war, they moved to Ostrava, where the deceased‘s father was constantly monitored. The Communists feared that he was acting as a spy for the Western powers. When he attended the funeral of Edvard Beneš, he was fired from his job and the whole family moved back to the Klatovy region. František Paluska also perceived various hardships during his schooling; after primary school he trained as an auto mechanic and entered military service. For a short time he had to work in the uranium mines. Then he started working as a driver for the International Truck Transport, and despite his undesirable origins, he travelled all over Europe thanks to his profession. He also visited places in England where his father served. He drove a truck until 1993, then worked as a driver in Germany until his retirement. In 2024 he was living in Plánice.