„The main aim of those fighter sweeps was to attack the trains and shoot at the locomotives. Those were steam engines and if the boiler was hit, nobody was able to ever fix it and the engine was rendered useless forever. So, their task was to attack the locomotives and thus slow the transport in the Reich, the Protectorate included. And it waas general knowledge that the pilots, namely in the Czech lands, are considerate and before they attack, they would circle the train three times so that people would have the chance to run away from the train. And that’s what I really experienced, that we went by one such train and suddenly, a sweep. The engineer whistled, we ran away, we left everything on board and ran away from the train. Then we lay in the ditch and the pilot fired at the train. We had to wait for another locomotive to drag the train and us further on.“
„She was a real lady, by education, by her stamina, by her general knowledge. I don’t know… she just liked me, I don’t know why. There were people who were not getting it because sometimes I told her things that would be considered beyond the limits of the respect to the older generation. It was apparent that she was not pleased by that but she withstood it. Then, what was the ultimate satisfaction for me – she died when she was 97 – and she wished, and she was a world-renowned scholar, that I give the speech at her funeral. Which was what indeed moved me, I have to confess, I hadn’t expected it at all… And she withstood it although sometimes, I told her something harsh when we talked science. I wouldn’t just accede...”
“It was crystal clear. Only the state attorney talked, everything had been prepared beforehand, my uncle, we called him Zděnek, we never called him uncle, we called each other by our given names, Zděnek was brainwashed. He just kept nodding. Mind that before the process, he was in custody for at least half a year. What he had to suffer there, he told me only when he came back [from jail], rivers of blood. Those are terrible things. So, he was brainwashed and he just kept nodding. The defense attorney only talked about irrelevant details. The process was terrible. I was there with my uncle’s wife. He was sentenced to twenty five years.”
„All that time, we slept there. During the five days between the 5th and the 9th, I visited my home briefly only twice. Otherwise, we stayed there overnight in case someone needed us. The couriers were there mainly because… The biggest danger was, in Spořilov, there were still several areas inhabited by Germans, [they were staying at places] mainly where they had the Jews moved out, that’s where the snipers were from. Many of the Spořilov revolutionaries, if I remember clearly, there were seven of them, were buried in a dedicated grave but then they were exhumed in the park by the church. So, that was really dangerous, I mean, in Spořilov. And then the tanks approaching, those were coming from the Benešov training grounds, I mean, from the town of Benešov, near Prague.“
Jaroslav Květina was born on the 19th of May of 1930 in Račiněves in the vicinity of the Říp mountain. His family moved to the Spořilov neighbourhood of Prague where he and his sister grew up. During the Nazi occupation, he was a member of the illegal scout group, Osmička [The Eight]. At the age of fourteen, he worked at the Luftschutz – air raid guards – and he and his buddies from the scout group served as relays in case of need. Jaroslav Květina participated in the Prague Uprising in 1945, for which he was awarded the Scout cross “For the Country”. Jaroslav’s great example was his uncle, Zdeněk Aim, a gifted man, talented teacher and a political prisoner in the 1950’s. After graduating from the secondary school, Jaroslav enrolled to study pharmacology at the Charles’ University medical school and there he joined his first research group. Professor Rašková invited him to join the team in the Purkyně Research institute and kindled his enthusiasm for pharmacology. He graduated from the Masaryk University in Brno in 1953. In 1954, he started working with VG, M. D., first at the army medical school, later at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Charles University in Hradec Králové. His research focused on the metabolic pathways in the liver and pharmacodynamics. His published results lead to offers for research jobs abroad, e. g. at the Istituto Mario Negri in Milano in 1966, or in Tokyo in 1968. In 1969, Jaroslav Květina strove to renew the pharmacy studies in bohemia and in the same year, he became the first dean at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Charles University in Hradec Králové. At the same time, he established the department of pharmacology and toxicology; he was its head from 1969 until 1990. Professor Květina’s major achievement was establishing a new field in the pharmacy science – clinical pharmacology. In the 1980, the Institute for Experimental Biological Therapeuticals was founded at the Academy of Sciences. Professor Květina was its head until 2007. After the pharmacy college was established in Brno, he became a corresponding member of the academic board. In the 1990‘s, he started a cooperation with the university hospital in Hradec Králové where he did some research for the gastroenterology department. Professor Květina is a world renowned pharmacologist and teacher, he authored more than four hundred publications. He greatly widened the horizons of pharmacology in research, education and practice of medicine. He was still active in his field at the time of recording the interview for the Memory of Nations in 2020.
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