Do you know the difference between life and death? A State Security officer asked me
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Vladimír Marek was born on 22 May 1954 in Česká Lípa into the family of František Marek, a driver, and Miloslava Marková, a worker. Immediately after his birth, the family moved to Ostašov in Liberec, where they started living with his grandparents. After finishing primary school, he trained as a bookbinder and started working at Severografia in Liberec. His opposition to the communist regime began to manifest itself in him from childhood. At first he witnessed the confiscation of his grandfather’s property by the local cooperative farm. In 1969, after anti-occupation demonstrations, his older brother was forced to emigrate to West Germany. Vladimír Marek got into trouble with the communist authorities in 1972, when he was first tried for rioting and left court with suspended sentence. He was then convicted twice more in the following years, for social parasitims and his last sentence was for participating in a crime. Vladimír Marek became a part of the Liberec community of the so-called long-haired guys and maintained a close relationship with them, participating in various events together or just spending their free time together. In June 1977, he became a signatory of Charter 77, officially expressing his opposition to the communist regime. At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, he participated in the publication of the samizdat magazine Váhy, which was published among North Bohemian dissidents and opponents of the regime. Until the fall of the regime, he was constantly harassed by the communist authorities. After the Velvet Revolution, he took the opportunity to travel freely and hitchhiked all over Western Europe. Since 1991 he has lived alternately in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. He holds a certificate as a participant in the resistance and resistance against communism. At the time of recording (2025) he lived in Liberec.
