I had my state approval revoked in 1973
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Jan Šimsa was born on 2 October 1929 in Prague. His father Jaroslav was an editor and secretary at the YMCA and chief of the Forest Wisdom League (Woodcraft). Jan Šimsa was a co-founder of one of its secret tribes during World War II. The entire family was active in the resistance during the war. The father was arrested in 1940 and died at the end of the war in Dachau. My mother hid Jaroslav Valenta in their flat and for some time also a radio. In connection with the Forest Wisdom League, Jan Šimsa met Přemysl Pitter and the people around the Milíč House during the war in 1944 and became involved in its activities. After the war, from 1945 to 1947, he participated in camps for abandoned children of all nationalities from concentration camps. After graduating in 1948, he studied theology at the Evangelical Faculty. In 1952 State Security unsuccessfully tried to get him to cooperate. After graduation, Šimsa had to start his militrary service. However, due to illness he was released early into civilian life and took up ministry as an auxiliary clergyman in Pardubice. After about a year he moved to Prague, where he stayed for two years. Then he was sent to Klášter nad Dědinou. Due to disputes with the church secretary, after six years he was transferred to Prosetín, where he continued his ministry for the next twelve years. In February 1973, after the onset of normalisation, his state permission to exercise clerical activity was revoked. He made his living as an archivist and as a maintenance worker of church buildings. For some time he was still working non-publicly in the congregation in Prosetín. Then he and his family moved to Brno, where he found a job as a warehouseman at the Research Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry. He worked there for a total of fourteen years. He was among the first to sign the Charter 77 and became involved in the activities of the Brno dissent, for example, he organised housing seminars at home. In 1978, during a house search, State Security lieutenant Miloš Bata assaulted his wife Milena. Šimsa defended her and pushed Bata, for which he was sentenced to eight months. He spent five months in pre-trial detention and the rest in Pilsen Na Borech. Jan Šimsa was one of the most prominent personalities of Brno dissent. He participated in the activities of the Brno M-Club, which met at the home of Božena Komárková. Shortly before the fall of communism, he presented events of the Brno Forum. After November he was involved in the Civic Forum, he was also a co-founder of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party in Brno, he also restored the YMCA and the Forest Wisdom League. In Prague he participated in the renewal of the Masaryk Society. He was rehabilitated by the Constitutional Court only in 2007 in connection with the case of the assault of a State Security officer. He received the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. He received the award of a participant in the anti-communist resistance. Jan Šimsa died on 5 April 2016.
