He was a 10 year old boy who lived a happy, carefree life in a real, honest-to-goodness castle in Czechoslovakia.
One morning, on his way to school with his sister, Milu, everything changed forever when they saw Hitler’s tanks, guns and soldiers parading in the streets.
In the months and years to come, Fred remembers the terror of the Nazis, barging with guns and bayonets into their home late at night in search of his Catholic father, who risked his and his family’s lives to help his Jewish employees and friends.
When WW II was over, the family’s struggles began anew with the Communist takeover of their country. Fred was 19 years old by now and on his way to becoming an engineer. One night the family made a dramatic escape across the border to Germany. They had to leave all their assets behind.
Eventually they landed in Ottawa and started the slow business of building a life and a business that went on, headed and owned by Fred, to become one of the premier construction and land-holding companies in the city. Sirotek Construction also represented Canada with its many school buildings, commissioned by Canadian External Affairs, in The West Indies in the 1960s and 70s. Fred launched additional, innovative ventures in Ottawa and Ogdensburg, N.Y., that revealed his good instincts as a man of business.
Fred Sirotek is 84 years old now. He’s a handsome, white-haired, sharply intelligent, outgoing guy. From his home in Ottawa, he remembers it all. More, he sees it through the wisdom and perspective of time. He has learned things about WW II that he (and probably most others) didn’t know – for instance, that it was actually British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who, with a flourish of a pen, condemned the world to Hitler. He also learned the terrible things that happened to his country during the 40 years of Communist rule.
With writer Francie Healy, he shares all this along with photos of the chicken coop where he and a buddy hid before they crossed the border in 1948; the beautiful castle they left behind; the refugee camps his family stayed in; and the WW II troop ship that brought them to Canada. He also shares photos of many of Ottawa’s landmarks – buildings and bridges and overpasses his company, Sirotek Construction, built through the 50s 60s and 70s.
And he has stories to tell – stories about construction, business, life, family, and a brand new life in Canada. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you shake your head in wonder.
He attributes much of his success to luck—but only a very little bit. “Just about one per cent is all you need”, he says, “as long as it comes at the right time.”
It came at the right time for Fred in almost every chapter of his life. That one per cent of luck saved him from death before he was 20. It helped him avoid near-disasters in construction, in the air, at a railway crossing. It gave him a unique appreciation of life.
That, along with a wicked sense of humour, make his stories irresistible.
One morning, on his way to school with his sister, Milu, everything changed forever when they saw Hitler’s tanks, guns and soldiers parading in the streets.
In the months and years to come, Fred remembers the terror of the Nazis, barging with guns and bayonets into their home late at night in search of his Catholic father, who risked his and his family’s lives to help his Jewish employees and friends.
When WW II was over, the family’s struggles began anew with the Communist takeover of their country. Fred was 19 years old by now and on his way to becoming an engineer. One night the family made a dramatic escape across the border to Germany. They had to leave all their assets behind.
Eventually they landed in Ottawa and started the slow business of building a life and a business that went on, headed and owned by Fred, to become one of the premier construction and land-holding companies in the city. Sirotek Construction also represented Canada with its many school buildings, commissioned by Canadian External Affairs, in The West Indies in the 1960s and 70s. Fred launched additional, innovative ventures in Ottawa and Ogdensburg, N.Y., that revealed his good instincts as a man of business.
Fred Sirotek is 84 years old now. He’s a handsome, white-haired, sharply intelligent, outgoing guy. From his home in Ottawa, he remembers it all. More, he sees it through the wisdom and perspective of time. He has learned things about WW II that he (and probably most others) didn’t know – for instance, that it was actually British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who, with a flourish of a pen, condemned the world to Hitler. He also learned the terrible things that happened to his country during the 40 years of Communist rule.
With writer Francie Healy, he shares all this along with photos of the chicken coop where he and a buddy hid before they crossed the border in 1948; the beautiful castle they left behind; the refugee camps his family stayed in; and the WW II troop ship that brought them to Canada. He also shares photos of many of Ottawa’s landmarks – buildings and bridges and overpasses his company, Sirotek Construction, built through the 50s 60s and 70s.
And he has stories to tell – stories about construction, business, life, family, and a brand new life in Canada. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you shake your head in wonder.
He attributes much of his success to luck—but only a very little bit. “Just about one per cent is all you need”, he says, “as long as it comes at the right time.”
It came at the right time for Fred in almost every chapter of his life. That one per cent of luck saved him from death before he was 20. It helped him avoid near-disasters in construction, in the air, at a railway crossing. It gave him a unique appreciation of life.
That, along with a wicked sense of humour, make his stories irresistible.
