My father wanted to save me from the Nazis, so he had me christened
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Otto Musil was born on 18 March 1934 in Prague to a single mother, Maria Musilová. His father, Karel Jelínek, a tailor and merchant of Jewish origin, was married and had a daughter, Hana, but he and Marie had a relationship. He stayed close to his son and took care of him, even though the family situation was difficult. Shortly after his birth, his father had him christened. After the occupation of the republic by the Germans in 1939, Karel Jelínek lost his business and moved with Marie and his son to Zborovská Street. The greatest tragedy came in August 1942, when Karel Jelínek was deported to Terezín and then to the Malý Trostinec extermination camp in Belarus, where he perished. The same fate befell his wife Markéta and his daughter Hana. Otto and his mother survived the war in Prague. In February 1945, he experienced the bombing of the city, and in May, during the Prague Uprising, he was almost shot by a German neighbour who was firing from the opposite house. After the war, he was placed among the war orphans and, thanks to the American Embassy, attended the Independence Day celebrations. He began to learn English from American newspapers and magazines. He graduated from the Jan Neruda Grammar School in 1953. Because of his background and “political unreliability” he could not study at the Faculty of Arts. Instead, he joined Tesla in Hloubětín as a technician. From 1956 to 1958 he completed his military service, during which he married Miluška Černá. Together they had two children. In 1967 he travelled to England for the first time, and two years later he went there again with his wife. During the period of normalisation, he worked at Tesla as a quality controller, while his wife worked at Czechoslovak Radio as a secretary for the director Ján Riška. In 1973, State Security (StB) established an investigation personal file for suspected foreign contacts against Otto Musil. The file was shelved in 1976, stating that Musil was Western-oriented but politically passive. He had never joined the Communist Party. He remained at Tesla until the 1990s, when the company closed after the fall of the regime. He then worked in the foreign department of the Czechoslovak Red Cross, where he used his knowledge of English and technical skills. He retired in 1994. He never forgot his father, who was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. He himself is a devout Christian, while his son Jiří, who studied Hebrew and attends synagogues, is particularly interested in Judaism and its history. In 2025, at the time of recording, the witness lived in Prague.
