Karel Dýnka

* 1929

  • “The worst experience I had there was that there was a rare library of several thousand volumes and drove us there at night, and we moved the library to trucks. They set up such a belt there and we put the books on it. They took the unknown where. Reportedly to Prague. I remember many of us flipping through the books and putting them behind their shirts. We wanted to keep them. Of course, state security did not allow it and we had to turn everything in again. I percieved it a cruel experience because I had a lot of respect for literature and had a great love for books and there it was thrown, like with some inferior goods. It was even said, but I cannot confirm it as a credible thing that there were some incunabula and those were stolen by a ministry worker who sold them or just lost it.”

  • “I remember today that something suddenly woke me up and someone was pointing a gun at me. It was utter horror. We had to stand up and go with him. They immediately put us in one room and said that we should only take the most necessary things. I went to brush my teeth in the washroom and then I ran to the bedroom. I wanted to say goodbye to the boys. They woke up and said goodbye. Of course, the policemen caught me and beat me up. Then they drove us in a car at night, where there were three priests, the headmaster, the school counselor, the confessor and the so-called assistants, the Salesians following the promises they taught. We sat side by side, a member of the order and a member of the police. I remember there were the curtains down in the car so people couldn't see us. Of course we wanted to pee and they told us to get out and pee in line. They pointed their weapons at us and stood behind us before we finished. They took us to Osek near Duchcov.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Uherské Hradiště, 18.04.2018

    (audio)
    duration: 02:36:42
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
  • 2

    Uherské Hradiště, 18.04.2018, 06.12.2018

    (audio)
    duration: 49:51
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

They put us against the wall, we had to take our pants off, and checked us if we had any weapons

Karel Dynka in 2018
Karel Dynka in 2018
photo: Vít Lucuk

Karel Dýnka was born on April 14, 1929 in Částkov. In 1949 he graduated from the Salesian Grammar School. Subsequently, as an assistant teacher he worked at the Salesian Institute for the late priestly vocation in Mníšek pod Brdy and also prepared to enter the Salesian Order of Don Bosco. On the night of April 13-14, however, he was taken to the internment monastery in Osek near Duchcov as part of the K action with other Salesian officials. In September 1955 he was drafted into auxiliary technical battalions, where he spent illegally forty months. After his release, he had to work as a labourer and only then was admitted to study at the Pedagogical Department of the Music School in Olomouc, which he did not complete due to the persecution of the State Security. He lived in constant fear then. He didn’t know what to do, so he hid himself for six months in a mental hospital in Kromeriz. Subsequently he devoted himself to music and in 1971 he remotely completed the Brno conservatory in the field of organists. He then worked as a lecturer of the Educational Discussion Podolí and Kunovice, a lecturer of the Association of the Racing Club Uherské Hradiště and from 1969 until retirement he taught at the Folk School of Arts in Uherské Hradiště. In 1962 he married Anna Kolarikova, and together they raised their children Martha and Paul. In 1997 he was awarded the prize of the town of Uherské Hradiště for his lifelong merit, where he lived also in 2018.