When the StB started acting differently, I thought it was a trap.
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Josef Dvořák was born in Kladno on 23 December 1954. His father worked at the SONP Kladno steelworks and his mother was janitor and cleaner in a preschool. His parents joined the communist party to obtain an apartment but were not active politically. Josef grew up with his older sister, went to the primary school in Kladno-Sítná and then in Stará Amálka. Before age 14, he witnessed the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. He trained as a locksmith in SONP Kladno, and initiated the exit of the entire class from the SSM, but in the end he was one of only three apprentices who persisted in their decision. After his apprenticeship, he worked as a locksmith at SONP Kladno, and feigned a suicide attempt and a psychiatric diagnosis to avoid military service. In the following years he worked as a stagehand in the Kladno theatre and at Stavocentral where he and a colleague exited the trade unions (ROH). He wore his hair long and socialised with liberal-minded friends, swapping western recordings and banned printed material. Over time, he got into the State Security sights, and they questioned and persecuted him. His passport was revoked in 1979 and he signed Charter 77 shortly afterwards. He married and had son Aleš. In the early 1980s, the State Security started acting differently and he was “offered” the option of leaving the country for the West as part of the Asanace project Josef Dvořák moved to Austria in 1981, his wife Marta followed him in 1982, but they divorced in Vienna and his wife and son moved to the USA the following year. In order not to lose touch with his son, Josef left for the USA permanently in 1985 and remarried. He lived in California, Idaho and Tennessee. In 2025, he and his wife moved to the Czech Republic, and at the time of the completion of the interview (2025) he was living in Pila near Karlovy Vary.
