Josef Jančar

* 1925

  • “An officer of district prosecutor Válková came and told me that comrade prosecutor Válková wanted to write down some people who did not fulfil obligations so that she could judge them. I told him: ‘Mr. Větrovský please tell Mrs. prosecutor for me that we also have our work to do and that it does not mean that we will leave everything and she will knock us on our asses when she wants.‘ Mr. Větrovský left and probably told her because a phone rang in half an hour. Chief secretary Šmolík from the regional committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party [called] and said: ‘Comrade Jančar, come to us immediately!’ And I told him: ‘I can´t come to you, they will not let me go there, I am not a member of the party.’ He told me: ‘They will let you, you will be taken there, the person on duty will be awaiting you.’ The National Security Corps officers still guarded committees at that time. So I went there and a National Security Corps officer took me to the chief secretary who was sitting in a chair behind the desk and next to him on the corner was someone who might have been a Bureau member, chief of Agricultural Cooperative and (there was) also former secretary, head of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Blatná. And the chief secretary started to tell me that they were building socialism and that I was disrupting it and how came I dared to send Mrs. prosecutor that message. And the one sitting on the corner, the chief of Agricultural Cooperative, said: ‘Comrade Jančar, you call us ‘new kids on the block‘ but be careful so that the new kids on the block would not make life difficult for you.’”

  • “It is written in my notice that I was celebrating my name day on the 19th of March - I used to have holiday that day - and that I and other employees were drinking alcohol during working hours. And that when I saw a Soviet flag, I broke its flagpole on purpose. And also, that some leaflets that should have been removed ages ago were found in my working space after a long time. And that I did not remove them. [There was written] that I broke an employee´s code because of those two reasons and that they gave me a three-month notice.”

  • “I arrived in Zelená Hora with supplies. There were just some soldiers. They told me where the store was and where the kitchen would be. A civil company was working there. Bricklayers were rebuilding it so that it could be used as barracks. So, I stored it there and rode a motorcycle home. I arrived in the morning because there was no commander, they had all gone home. So, I started to work as a supply officer. I obtained supplies at butcher´s, at ’U Jiskrů’ which was a food store in the square in Nepomuk and at ’U Racků’ which was a bakery. Third Písek battalion was transported there from Dobříš only in the spring of 1949. A Warrant Officer Class 1 Hon was [a supply officer]there then. And I ended there because of it. But [there was] a farm in Zelená Hora and [a Slovak] came to see me - I think he was Warrant Officer Class 1 - because I had worked in a poultry farm in Blatná. He was actually interested in buying fifty chickens and wanted me to raise them. So, I got this huge function that I raised chickens in a wooden house under the church."

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    Plzeň, 21.06.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 01:32:05
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - PLZ REG ED
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I hate deceit and deception. I have never submitted to anything like this.

Josef Jančar as a young person
Josef Jančar as a young person
photo: Pavel Motejzík, Lukáš Mácha

Josef Jančar was born on the 19th of March 1925 in Vahlovice near Blatná. He went to elementary school in Vahlovice and after it, he studied up till the fourth year at school in Blatná and then he studied School of Agriculture in Březnice. During World War II he and his friends watched fighter-bombers of alliance. He also experienced second air raid on Mirotice on the 29th of April 1945. He did his military service in Zelená Hora since September 1948 and his job was to take care of supplies. He worked in Dairy and Agricultural Cooperative in Blatná for fifteen years (except of the time of his military service). He worked as the head of register at the Ministry of Purchase in 1952. He worked for State Fisheries Blatná since 1956 and he was fired from the company in 1968 because of his opinions on entrance of Warsaw Pact troops to Czechoslovakia. Since 1969, he was listed in the central register of State Security as a person hostile to the socialist establishment. He was expelled from the Hunting Association because of his political beliefs in 1970. He worked for the Czechoslovak State Railways from 1971 to 1985. He has loved football since he was little; he worked for many years in Blatná as football official, presenter and commentator of home matches. He was fully rehabilitated in 1990. The Regional Chamber of Commerce in Strakonice declared him an important native of the area of Blatensko in 2017. Nowadays, he cooperates with TJ Sokol Blatná and is a chairman of the Czech Union for Nature Conservation Blatná. He has been awarded several medals by Czech Association of Physical Education and Sport for his exceptional contribution to physical education and sport thanks to his documentation, exhibition and association activities.