Josef Mencik, sometimes spelled Josef Menšík, was a real-life Don Quixote. We don’t know much about his background, but he was born in 1911 in what is now Czechia. As a young man, Mencik bought Strakonicku castle in the village of Dobrs and lived there as if he were a medieval knight. He didn’t use electricity or plumbing, nor a car, but he had a full suit of armor. By all accounts, he was what we would call “a local character” today.
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He even had a suit of armour made in France.
Local school classes were invited to visit the castle and see his huge collection and learn about history.
Josef became a bit of a local celebrity. pic.twitter.com/XRogxpY9KS— Fake History Hunter (@fakehistoryhunt) November 18, 2021
In 1938, the Nazis were eager to take what was then Czechoslovakia, which they considered historically their own. Mencik was 27 years old at the time, and fiercely patriotic. On September 30, 1938, a line of German tanks approached Mencik’s village and his castle. Seating on his warhorse in full medieval armor, he stood bravely against the 20th-century army to defend his home and village all alone. Read the story of Josef Mencik, the knight of World War II, at Creative History. -via Strange Company
Source: neatorama