Ing. Alois Jaroš

* 1951

  • "It was definitely riddled with agents. It was said that there were two to three known ships on each ship. These were crew members with normal work. And then at least two or three that weren't known about and looked rather disorderly. So there was no caution left. But it wasn't as crazy as on Russian ships. We met them somewhere and visited each other. That's why I know. It happened to me personally that we had a drink in the dining room with the Russians. Their political officer came and said they should leave. And we were brothers, friends."

  • "She had a huge background with her parents, who were happy to help without a word. The background was in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, where our aunts, uncles and cousins lived. It was a pleasant coexistence and the small town was good. We could not afford much financially. We went on vacations once, when I was little, we went to the Giant Mountains. But otherwise I can't complain about social isolation or ostracism. The childhood was nice thanks to my mother. Of course, she enjoyed it the most. She had a phobia of arrests in Zvěstov. It was like they were driving in the morning, at half past three, at three, at a wonderful time. My mother was then mentally annoyed when a car stopped somewhere at night and the door slammed. She was horrified another ten years longer. I know from childhood that it was so. When the car stopped and the door slammed, she was feeling bad. That was the sound of horror for her."

  • "My mother was pregnant when my father was imprisoned. In the end, she probably did the best she could because they immediately locked up my stepmother and aunt Ed. My grandfather had died about a year earlier. When she was left alone in an empty large barracks, she packed a few things, duvets, and sent it by train. Then she returned to her parents in Ostrava. Then we lived in Kunčice pod Ondřejníkem at great-grandmother and we beat ourselves in various ways. Although my mum was accepted to study pharmaceutics, she went to work in a textile factory. Moravian-Silesian knitting mills in Frenštát were such an asylum. She met a lot of good people there. She worked there until the 1970s, when she fulfilled her life dream. She finished her pedagogical minimum and went to primary school."

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    Ostrava, 05.06.2019

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    duration: 01:24:29
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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Dad found out about my birth in prison. Then they executed him

Portrait in 2019
Portrait in 2019
photo: autoři natáčení

Alois Jaroš was born on August 19, 1951 in Ostrava. His ancestors owned the castle and manor in Zvěstov, but after 1948 they lost it as part of the nationalization process. His father was arrested because he took his acquaintance František Slepička to the place where the shootout with the communist functionary Václav Burda took place. František Slepička escaped, Václav Burda died and the State Security unleashed a large arrest. Thirty-six people ended up in prison. Alois Jaroš’s father was appointed leader of the anti-state group and executed on May 17, 1952. Alois Jaroš’s grandmother and aunt were also sentenced to twelve and ten years in prison for letting František Slepička sleep in their house. Alois was born while his father was in prison awaiting execution. His mother moved with him to relatives in northern Moravia. She worked in a knitting mill and lived under very modest conditions in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm. She never found another partner and dedicated her life to raising her only son. Alois studied cybernetics at the Czech Technical University in Prague. During socialism he worked as an electrical engineer on cargo ships. After November 1989, the family property was returned to his family in a devastated state. Only a torso remained from the chateau in Zvěstov, the building was partially blasted down and destroyed by the fact that there were warehouses of an agricultural cooperative. After 1989, Alois started his business and became one of the partners of Logis, which provides information technology to metallurgical companies in many countries around the world. It was not until 2006 that his mother received the last letter from the archives, which her husband had written to her shortly before the execution. The Communists hid it from her at the time and did not send it.