He signed Charter 77 in March 1977
Download image
Jaroslav Doucha was born on 1st of February 1957 in Liberec. His father was a printer, his mother was a teacher at an apprenticeship school, his parents were not politically involved. His grandfather saved the statue of Karolina Světlá in Světlá pod Ještědem from the Nazis during the war. After the German population was expelled from Liberec, he was offered a German house as a reward, but he refused. Jaroslav Doucha had several good teachers at the primary school, but most of the teachers were zealous supporters of communism. He was not accepted into the Pioneer because of his views. During the period of partial relaxation of conditions in the 1960s, he became a member of the restored Boy Scouts before this youth group was banned again. During the occupation of Liberec by Soviet troops in August 1968, he witnessed the shooting in the city centre, saw dead fellow citizens and the raid of Soviet tanks into the historic arcade on Liberec Square. Jaroslav Doucha wanted to graduate from the secondary fishing school in Vodňany, but he was not accepted because of his poor grades. He therefore trained as a plumber at Pozemní stavby and worked at the Housing Cooperative Liberec. He had difficulties in his studies and in public because of his long hair, and was often perused by the police. At that time he listened to Western music, read samizdat and exile literature, and attended illegal concerts in underground houses. In March 1977 he signed Charter 77, taking his signature as a protest and an expression of solidarity with the persecuted groups Plastic People of the Universe and DG 307. This was followed by numerous interrogations by State Security, often using physical violence, searches, surveillance and threats of deportation abroad. The secret police tried to offer him cooperation. Jaroslav Doucha was usually taken away from his work for interrogations, and the State Security officers even broke into his country cottage in Železnice on several occasions. On the other hand, he was never conscripted into the military service because of the frequent interrogations. He married in 1979 and the couple had two daughters. From the mid-1980s onwards, the intensity of police persecution somewhat diminished, but he lived under police surveillance until November 1989. During the November days he became involved in the activities of the Civic Forum in Liberec, but when he saw what kind of people with a communist past were becoming involved in the Civic Forum, he left the movement and continued to work as a plumber. Jaroslav Doucha is a recipient of the award of a participant of the anti-communist resistance.
