I would never tell boys that Dad’s been locked up. I didn’t tell anywhere
Miroslav Filler was born on February 25, 1939 in Prague. He did not know his father Josef Filler until after World War II, when he returned from his stay in England. He served there as a pilot at the Royal Air Force. His mother was placed in the internment camp in Svatobořice during the Heydrichade together with other wives of exiled airmen, and Miroslav spent his early childhood with his grandparents in Bubeneč, where he was caught by the Prague Uprising and the end of the war. In 1945, the Fillers moved into a large apartment after the expulsion of the Germans. After his return, his father was briefly involved in the army and eventually retired. The situation around the family began to get ackward after the Communist coup in February 1948. Not only did its economic situation deteriorate, but Josef’s past also attracted the attention of the State Security. Everything culminated in 1951, when he was sentenced to eighteen months in a labour camp in Kladno for allegedly insulting Klement Gottwald. After his release he was officially forbidden to work in Prague. Therefore, the family moved to Josefův Důl. Josef Filler died in 1952, when he and his friend from the English service got accidentally poisoned gas while brewing coffee. The funeral took place free of any state honours. His wife worked for the rest of her life in the then Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters. Miroslav Filler trained and worked as a mechanic and driver.
