Mgr. Evžen Adámek

* 1960

  • “Radomír Malý from Brno, who was also a Catholic activist, also needed someone with a car. He had people who brought religious literature from America. In the Netherlands, the Americans rented a jigger so that it would not be a conspicuous car and brought a full suitcase of black bags of religious literature. We went to the agreed place in Brno to the river Svratka, where he took me. The car was already there. I backed up with my car, I had the old Škoda Octavia. We tossed those things from one car to another right there. I didn't even know who he was. We didn't even introduce ourselves, we just said, 'Good evening.' Then we parted and drove away. We brought it to Radomír Malý´s cellar. He distributed it in his own manner. Those were iconic books, including the Beetles by Karafiát, a book that was not allowed to get published under Communism.”

  • “I was interrogated the same day. When I came back from the war, it was in 1981. They came to work for me, I worked in Zetor mounting tractors. They asked me who was stealing and what was happening there. I said I went to work only to work and I didn't care if anyone was taking anything from there. Then the Zetorak staffer asked me, where I was going. I said I was taking tram number fifty-eight to the red church and then changing to four and going home. So I described exactly my way to where I was going and the squads were waiting for me and they took me to Leninka. There they offered me cooperation. Because I came out of the military service, they didn't know how I would behave, what I would do. They explained to me that if I told them what my brothers and dad were going to do, they would stop them, because they would know what they were going to do, and they wouldn't get into jail. So, I would actually help turning my family out of jail. Of course, I disagreed, I said I wouldn't report about them. So they let me wait there for my ID until nine, half past nine. I didn't know why it was, but on the same day they just took Standa from work and out to the woods. I came home, and my parents asked: “What happened? Where did you go? "Then Standa didn't come back, so it was such a tense time as no one knew what was going to happen, how it would evolve from there."

  • “To get back to that Pavel Stenck, he wrote notes about what he learned from foreign radio stations. We went to the car park on December 26th. A friend had access to a typewriter with paper there. We wrote it down now. Such an idea, one can see from a far perspective that it was very naive, but at a time when one was young and had ideals, we imagined giving it to boys, soldiers to know what was happening in Poland, why they can't leave, why we were at risk of going to occupy Poland. It was by coincidence that the check came from Plzeň, as they said. They went through the entire barracks until they got out amongst the officers fleet and they caught us there. Maybe it was good if it came among the soldiers, so I'm sitting today. They then said that we were going to counter-revolution and coup and so on. They caught us, they took it from us. "What are you writing?" "We're writing a report here." "Sure, you're writing a report." Then the military secret officers arrived and we were questioned for three months. We got ten days for being in a car park where we shouldn't have been. We were in a military prison, as a man can get three days or one day in the army. We knew it was getting bad.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Znojmo, 21.05.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 01:56:59
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Znojmo, 29.05.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 44:22
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

They said we were preparing a counter-revolution and coup

Evžen Adámek on contemporary photograph
Evžen Adámek on contemporary photograph
photo: archiv pamětníka

Evžen Adámek was born on 27 February 1960 in Brno as the ninth of twelve children of Josef and Marie Adámek. From childhood he helped his father, a Christian activist and a dissident, in the press of samizdat religious literature. Later, he rewrote periodicals Information on Charter 77 and transported and distributed samizdat literature with his father. His father was arrested in 1979 by the State Security (StB) and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Eugene learned and worked as a car mechanic. During basic military service he was caught copying the text on the tense situation in Poland, imprisoned, interrogated and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. After returning from military service, the StB unsuccessfully tried to get him to cooperate, and further, persecuted him and regularly detained and questioned his brothers and father. Eugene also helped transporting samizdat prints and religious books published abroad. He has participated in many activities to support unjustly prosecuted and imprisoned people. He tried to promote Christianity, when he travelled to Moravia, where he displayed religious films in families and parishes. He also claimed his faith at the National Fair in Velehrad. In 1989, he moved with his wife and children to Horní Břečkov, and in November also experienced demonstrations near Znojmo. After the revolution he left the profession of mechanic and worked for two years as a technical administrator of the Brno bishopric, where he mapped confiscated church property. In 1993 he became director of the Znojmo Regional Charity, where he implemented countless projects, established a number of social services and organized assistance abroad.