He and his classmates from grammar school started an illegal group
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Jiří Nečas was born on 17 October 1929 in Prague. His father worked as an auditor at a credit union, and after 1948 he worked as a clerk at the Ministry of Finance. His mother took care of the household, his parents had no other children. The family survived the war without any major problems, but the Jewish neighbours who left for the transports and never came back, as well as the Prague Uprising at the end of the war and the building of barricades in the streets, are etched in Jiří Nečas’s memory. After completing the municipal school, he began to study at an eight-year grammar school, graduating in 1949. However, he was no longer accepted to university because of a reference that described him as a reactionary. He therefore took a administration job at the national enterprise TOS Čelákovice. Before February 1948, he was a member of the National Socialist Party youth and was also involved in scouting. After the Communists took power, he and his classmates from the grammar school founded an illegal group which, according to its written statutes, planned to influence the population with anti-communist propaganda, spread fear among the Communist Party members by terrorist actions, sabotage the economy and carry out espionage work for Western intelligence. They wrote one leaflet and collected information of an economic nature, for example, about the price of goods in shops, the shortage of materials at construction sites, etc. In time, however, Nečas had to end his cooperation with the twenty-one-member group, because in the autumn of 1950 he enlisted for two years of military service in Pilsen. On 22 May 1952, State Security officers came for him and arrested him while he was guarding a military warehouse. He was taken to Bartolomějská Street, where interrogations took place without the use of violence. After about a month, he was sent to Pankrác prison, where he spent six months plucking feathers. Throughout his detention he had no contact with his parents. The public trial of the whole group took place at the State Court in Prague from 12 to 14 November 1952. Sentences ranging from 12 years to several months were handed down for treason, espionage and association against the Republic. Nečas was sentenced to five years. His father was then fired from his position at the ministry. He began serving his sentence in Vinařice near Kladno in a coal mine. After six months he was transferred to the Slavkov region, where he mined uranium ore in the Svatopluk camp. After two years, he was transferred again, this time to the Vojna camp, working in the office for the last few months. Due to his good behavior and fulfillment of work standards, he was released in the autumn of 1956, a few months earlier than his sentence. After his return from prison, he was unable to find work for a long time, and was finally hired as a labourer in Pragovka. In the 1970s, he worked at Stavoservis in the maintenance of air conditioning. He retired from this position. He received an award of a participant of the anti-communist resistance.
