Mirko Červený

* 1935

  • “Grandpa brought home something from the Škoda factory which looked like a poppy-seed grinder, but a big one, and they would always get hold of some wheat somewhere and grind it and bake some pancakes for us… it was no fun. There was some shooting here, too… people from camps were passing through here at the end of the war. If the prisoners were Russians, they were really miserable, because Russia was not covered by the convention on international refugees, and nobody thus gave them anything.”

  • “We were working on the construction all the time... I would come from work at 2 p.m., mix the cement mortar… I was obtaining building material, it was not like today - when I needed bricks I had to go to the brickworks to get some, and then bring them home… I used a small hay-wagon for carrying the stuff. There was only one shop with building material, but they usually didn’t have anything in stock. I had to do the digging and building the walls. I worked with my father-in-law, while he was still able to…”

  • “There was a flat up there and a German woman lived there. Our people, including my father, went to disarm the German soldiers. There was a barrier across the entire street. The German woman threw a hand grenade at them. Fortunately none of them got hurt. The Germans who were hiding behind the barrier thought that she threw it at them, and so they fired at her from a panzerfaust. They did not kill her and later they saved her, but the blast was terrible.”

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    ZŠ Václavkova 1082, Mladá Boleslav, 02.02.2015

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My dreams as a small boy became reality, despite the many obstacles I faced.

Military service
Military service
photo: Archiv pamětníka

  Ing. Mirko Červený was born in Mladá Boleslav on April 2nd 1935. He studied local elementary school, and in 1950 he began his vocational training in the state-owned car factory AZNP where he learnt to work as a lathe operator. He then continued his studies, specializing in aircraft engines and graduating with excellent marks in 1956. His work placement was to the factory Avia Praha Letňany in Prague where he worked in the quality control of aircraft propellers production. After he had finished military service he began working in Avia’s aircraft engine construction department. In 1960 he made use of the offer to study a university simultaneously with his work, and he thus signed up for evening classes at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) in Prague. He graduated in 1966. In the course of his studies he married and he returned to work in the AZNP company in Mladá Boleslav. From 1991 until 2004 he was in charge of the aerodynamics and vehicle data group. He was active in Automotoklub Škoda, and until 1970 he also served as a member of the training committee for automobile sport and as member of the technical subcommittee of the General Automobile Club in Prague. From 1974 until the 1980s he was a member of the Rally Škoda (later Rally Bohemia) directorate.