Hlučínsko experienced bad times during the rule of Germans and also Czechs
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Josef Stříbný was born on 26 August 1933 in Kobeřice near Hlučín. He had four brothers. His father Alfons was a cart-wright. In addition to craft, the family had a smaller farm. At the time of the economic crisis, they experienced poverty and hunger. After the Munich agreement, Kobeřice became part of the Third Reich. The father joined the NSDAP to work in Germany to make a better living for the family. The employing company worked for the German army, and probably built concentration camps in the Baltics. Josef Stříbný had to go to the German school. In April 1945 he witnessed the arrival of the Red Army and the fighting with the German troops. The Russian soldiers then took their house. After the war the family was threatened to get moved out to Germany. As a punishment for his work for the Germans and was in the NSDAP, the father had to spend a year removing war damage at Baťa’s factory in Zlín. Witness´oldest brother was recruited shortly before the arrival of the war front and spent half a year in Russian captivity. After the war Hlučínsko became again a part of Czechoslovakia. Josef Stříbný apprenticed a carpenter and worked in various constructions. He participated, for example, in the construction of the Klement Gottwald´s New Works in Ostrava or in the construction of a gypsum mine in Kobeřice. He had five children and spent his entire life in his native village.
