Marie Haisová

* 1951

  • "At that time, the first municipal elections were held, and as I was active here, they approached me then to ask if I would like to run for the municipal elections. At the same time, they contacted me from the personal secretariat of Václav Havel, asking if I would go and help them, that they are overwhelmed with correspondence and that they don't know how to deal with it, and that they have me in the database as a reliable person, because I worked for them under totalitarianism and I am therefore trustworthy for them. I had a dilemma at the time - to run for office, to be a politician, or to work as a secretary on the waterfront? Well, how is it going with our female self-confidence, so what do you think I chose... I knew I couldn't do politics, I never did that, but as an administrative worker - I studied that, I did it for years, I was able to do that. So, I went to work as a secretary on the waterfront in Václav Havel's personal secretariat, and I was there immediately after the Velvet Revolution."

  • "From the very beginning, I knew Jirka Fuchsa from Klatovy, who dated Sabina Krausová and her father was a Chartist. They were looking for someone to help them retype those documents. Someone always wrote something about, for example, the state of the environment or the state of education, simply from certain areas of life. So, it was in the original and it was necessary to get it to the people. So, if I would be willing to cooperate. Two years after that, I was on a maternity leave and I was at home, so in the evenings I typed copies on the typewriter, ten to fourteen through the hammer could be done. They always brought me the document and I copied it at home, I returned copies back to the person who assigned it to me, and I kept one copy or I read it while transcribing it, so when the revolution came, I was in the picture. A lot of people didn't know what was going on. Kindergarten that suddenly opened its doors and people don't know what to do. Thanks to the Charter, I was always informed and knew what it was about, how the regime manipulates people and enslaves them. I also copied a few books for Petlice. For example Být nebo mít (To have or to be) by Erich Fromm or Kosočtverce na ohradách … So, in the evenings, when I put the children to bed, I wrote for the Charter."

  • "In Klatovy, in that small town, people began to get used to it very quickly, they immediately founded the Union of Leninist Youth there, they simply accepted the situation that there will be totalitarianism here again. That no Prague spring will bloom there. In 1969 there were protests on the anniversary of the occupation, and as the secretary of the commercial deputy, which was quite an interesting position, I had access to an Ormig (a photocopier), a kind of xerox, the forerunner of today's copiers. Back then, I copied protest leaflets against the entry of the Soviets into our territory, and we put them into mailboxes and called for protests so that people would walk to work - and I don't know exactly what ten points there were, how to express that disagreement. It ended with us all being caught, we all ended up at State Security, we were all interrogated. My friends had a record in the criminal register, they definitely already had a criminal record. Well, and me... We had acting director Jůva there at the time, and he bought me out. He invited the State Security officers and I saw them leaving with full briefcases. He gave them gifts so they wouldn't ruin my life. They just punished me by removing me from my position as secretary and I went to work in the sample room, packing parcels for Russia."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha, 28.10.2013

    (audio)
    duration: 29:01
    media recorded in project Soutěž Příběhy 20. století
  • 2

    Praha, 19.09.2014

    (audio)
    duration: 54:03
    media recorded in project Soutěž Příběhy 20. století
  • 3

    Praha ED, 09.02.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 01:55:55
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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My boss bribed State Security so they wouldn’t ruin my life

Marie Haisová, née Voráčková
Marie Haisová, née Voráčková
photo: A competition

Marie Haisová, née Voráčková, was born on April 12, 1951 in Klatovy. She lived with her parents in Vacovy, near Klatovy. After her parents’ divorce in 1955, she lived with her mother in Pilsen and from 1957 with her mother and her stepfather in Heřmanová Huť, which she fondly remembers. In 1965, she started studying at the secondary grammar school in Stříbro, but in the same year, after the tragic death of her stepfather, she had to move again with her mother and a newborn sister, this time to Klatovy. There she graduated from a two-year school for work in administration and in 1968. She found her first job at ČSAD, not long after that she succeeded in an open competition for the job position of secretary of the commercial deputy in Kozak company in Klatovy region. In 1969, during the annual demonstrations, she used a work photocopier to produce leaflets supporting resistance to the Soviet occupiers, which she and her friends distributed through mailboxes. They all ended up being questioned by State Security and left with a record, which caused them big problems in their later lives. The acting director of the company where Marie worked allegedly bribed the members of State Security with gifts so that they would leave Maria alone and not destroy her life. Maria was “just” removed from the job position of secretary as a punishment. Not long after that, she went to Prague, where she worked in civil engineering as a secretary and then as a clerk. At the same time, she studied folk music conservatory. She got married and started a family. In the eighties, she got into the circle of people around Charter 77 and became a reliable collaborator. In the evenings she rewrote texts and books. In November 1989, she was active in the Civic Forum in Zahradní Město in Prague and accepted an offer to work in Václav Havel’s personal secretariat. She worked as a secretary at Prague Castle for two years. In the years 1993–1996, she was the director of the association of environmental organizations Zelený kruh (Green Circle), in 1997 she founded the civil association Agentura GAIA, whose mission is to improve interpersonal communication through the programs Zeleň je život (Green is Life), Ženy a životní prostředí (Women and the Environment), Alternativy ke konzumnímu způsobu života (Alternatives to a Consumer Lifestyle).