PhDr. Svatopluk Morávek

* 1948

  • "I remember in first and second grade, we used to write letters as a whole class. Us, in a child's hand. I still remember the beginning of those letters: 'Dear farmer.' I still remember how I used to wonder about the word farmer as a first-grader. We laughed, like a tavern-keeper. We wrote and handed the letters to them. It was such pressure from the poor little kids who were unhappy that they were spoiling it and not joining the JZD." - "Did you write to them there?" - "Yes, that's what we wrote to them to join the JZD and do everything for a better tomorrow and for us children."

  • "My father had a brother who was 20 years younger, but they had a great relationship. They used to go together to Slovak music parties, balls, celebrations, where they danced together. My father was a very cheerful person, very popular and they were known as a popular couple. It's my guess, but the Communists didn't like my father and they were probably thinking of ways to get him, and after that February, they came up with a way to arrest his brother, who was 19 years old at the time, on the basis of a denunciation. They used to go to the wine cellar. They would talk there and they would say something so called anti-state, they would talk and they would just say something. And on the basis of that, a monster trial was made and this brother was arrested at the age of 20 and ended up in Jáchymov for many years. So that made a boo on my father, who was quite upset - he was attached to my brother and he also cared about the children and me. So he couldn't rebel too much. The communists manipulated him."

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    Šumperk, 03.03.2023

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    duration: 02:06:44
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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When one goes alone, one can go through many things

Svatopluk Morávek
Svatopluk Morávek
photo: archive of a witness

Svatopluk Morávek was born on 16 July 1948 in Mikulčice to his parents Augustin and Milada. His parents owned a farm in Mikulčice with four hectares of fields and two vineyards. His father was a member of the Czechoslovak National Social Party and served on the village council. After the communist regime took over, he became inconvenient for local officials. Allegedly, it was for this reason that his brother Jaroslav was arrested in 1948 and sentenced to several years in prison in a mock trial. Jaroslav Morávek died on 8 April 1953 after a mining accident in shaft No. 3 in the Jáchymov uranium mines. His funeral in Mikulčice became a silent manifesto and was attended by thousands of people. Svatopluk Morávek got into the grammar school in Hodonín (at that time the so-called twelve-year school) despite initial difficulties due to his cadre profile. After graduating, he studied psychology at Palacký University (UP) in Olomouc and in 1972 took up a position as a psychologist in a psychiatric surgery clinic in Šumperk, initially as the only psychologist in the entire district. He also got married in Šumperk and he and his wife raised their two children there. In 1977, he completed his doctorate, became a graduate psychologist and from that year also lectured psychology at the Palackého University in Olomouc. From 1981 to 1992 he worked at the psychiatric surgery ward in Šumperk. He co-founded a pedagogical-psychological counselling centre in the town and a marriage counselling centre in Olomouc. He repeatedly refused offers to join the Communist Party. He continued his practice after the fall of the communist regime, but took advantage of the open opportunities. He had a foreign internship in Zurich, Switzerland, twice spent time in the jungle in Peru as part of his self-therapy, and walked a thousand kilometres in five weeks on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. At the time of filming in 2023, he was still practicing medicine.