Our parents fled from the Nazis in 1938, we fled from the Communists in 1968
Download image
Michal Kodíček was born on June 20, 1946, in the Prague’s military hospital, where his father, lieutenant dr. Arnold Kodíček, served as the consultant. His mother Zdeňka, née Picková, was, same as his father, of the Jewish origin. His father fled the war to Poland and during the war he got to London, where he worked as a military surgeon. His two brothers saved themselves from the holocaust in England too, but they did not return to the country. His mother Zdeňka Picková was a photographed and escaped holocaust by emigrating to London, where the Kodíčeks met. He married after the was in Prague, where Arnold was the consultant at the maternity ward in the military hospital until 1958. Due to his political opinions he was expelled from the Communist Party and degraded professionally and in rank. Michal Kodíček studied the piano in 1963-1968 at the music conservatory. After the August invasion in 1968 he, his wife and their three-year-old sone emigrated to England. On the BBC’s appeal to provide a refuge for Czech migrants, the Kodíčeks were offered accommodation by a young English married couple, who are still friends with the Kodíčeks. They made their living by various art activities, from piano lessons to theatre. In the early 1980s, Mr Kodíček married a second time, this time with his English wife Agnes, with whom he has two sons, Max and Jakub. He lives in Cornwall, his sone Max decided to live in Czechia. Michal’s brother Milan is a scientist, specialising in biochemistry. His uncle Josef Kodíček was an important pre-war literary critic, an editor at BBC during the war and of the Radio Free Europe in the 1950s.”
