First my dad came back from the Reich, then our team won the world championship and Erhard rejoiced
Stáhnout obrázek
Erhard Pluške was born in Štěpánkovice in the Hlučín region on 3 December 1933. His father Jiří Pluške was a bricklayer and mother Anežka worked on a farm. The family lost their house with the outbreak of the great depression. The father had to commute to Dortmund, Germany where he later worked for Organisation Todt during World War II. His eldest brother Vilém had to enlist in the German army in 1942, was deployed in Russia and stayed in Germany after the war. In the spring of 1945, the mother with Erhard and other children went to Bruntál to protect them from the frontline of the Ostrava-Opava operation. After the end of the war, Erhard Pluške witnessed the expulsion of two Štěpánkovice families to Germany. For years, the mother and children did not know whether their father and brother were alive. The father did not return from Germany until 1948. The witness trained as a bricklayer and worked for the Ostrava-Karviná Mines Construction Company (VOKD). In 1961 he built his own house in Štěpánkovice. Although his elder brother lived in West Germany, he refused to emigrate. At the time of filming in 2025, he was still living in Štěpánkovice.
