He travelled all over Europe and Africa
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Milan Melichar was born as the middle of three sons on January 8, 1944 in Prague. His father was a lawyer, his mother a housewife. The family survived the war and the liberation unscathed. After elementary school he trained as a fine mechanic at the Research Institute of Physics and Solids in Prague. At that time he was a member of the Svazarm, as he wanted to improve his rifle shooting. After two years of military service, he worked again at the research institute. The occupation on August 21, 1968 found him in Prague. As he had longed to explore the world and travel all his life, he decided to emigrate in September 1968. Just before he left, he got married so that his pregnant girlfriend could come to see him. He then headed for Vienna, where his older brother Oldřich and his wife were already located. Together they decided to live in the German part of Switzerland, which at that time offered generous conditions for Czechoslovaks fleeing from Soviet tanks. In Switzerland, Milan Melichar initially received financial support and, as a refugee, lived in a hotel for free, but he quickly found a job in his field and an apartment. His wife came to visit him at Christmas 1968, and in March 1969 their son was born in Switzerland. His wife, however, did not tolerate the foreign environment well and had a mental breakdown. Eventually she returned to the Czechoslovakia with her child. Melichar lived and worked in Lucerne and Zurich, socialised with the Czech community, but did not get involved in the exiled anti-regime activities. In the 1980s he met the dissident pastor Svatopluk Karásek and attended his sermons. In the meantime, Melichar realized his dreams and travelled all over Europe and Africa, and spent a long time in the United States. He travelled through Africa from Morocco to South Africa, where the rules of strict racial segregation were still in force at that time. He stayed in Johannesburg for almost a year. While traveling, he made a living by craft. He first came to Czechoslovakia in 1990. In the following years he came regularly, eventually returning to his homeland. Milan Melichar lives in Nová Ves in the Central Bohemian Region.
