Miloslav Šváček

* 1941

  • „On May 18, 1979, when I went to the main trial, I slept really well that night. I was just completely calm. In the morning I woke up, took the train to Ústí nad Orlicí. On my way to the court building I stopped by in the church and put everything into the hands of god. I didn’t care at all how things will end. The words of Christ are very true, if I quote: ,But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say.‘ I experienced that myself. Before the trial, it was half full of secret police and the other half was my fans. Amongst them also Václav Benda, Dana Němcová and also another priest, who belonged to the Committee of the Unjustly Prosecuted. I do not recall his name. Of course it made the procurator really it really upset prosecutor, who was trying to provoke a conflict in order to expel the present from the courtroom.“

  • „There was a foray of the secret police. They took over all the escape paths. Still one camper managed to leave to Hoštejn and inform the former priest Hrdlička, who wanted to come that very day to the camp, and advised him not to go. So he could avoid the conflict with the secret police. Naturally there were interrogations of several campers. I was taken to the national committee to Cotkytle. In one room there was a secret police interrogator and other secret policemen were listening in the other room. During interrogation I heard a click, so I told him that the recorder stopped working, that he should change the tape. That made him very angry, the fact I noticed it. Later I asked him if I may have a question. He accepted. I asked him whether he ever thought of the possibility that god actually existed. He started to beat his chest and shouted out: ,No, no, no, I am an atheist.‘“

  • „In August 1977 I was called to the police station in Přerov, where there were all the secret police from Ústí nad Orlicí. They let me wait for an hour, which was their tactic. They though it may influence me somehow. I was actually quite happy about it as I could pray and wait quietly. They offered me cooperation but I declines. They also wanted to know what part I played in the congress in Ćenstochová, as they had their man there and they know everything. I replied asking why they want to know from me when they actually know everything so well. I told them nothing. I had right to make notes and I was therefore writing all questions and answers in Esperanto. Obviously they asked what I was noting down, whether I want to pass it to the Free Europe. I told them it is just up to me and they don’t need to be interested. They did not protest at all but wanted to see it at the end of interrogation. I handed it over, they looked at it in a strange way and could not make any sense of it so gave it back.“

  • „Personally I didn´t know Václav Havel and can hardly judge. I think he did a good deal of work, mainly during separation of the Czechoslovakia, they managed to resolve the issue in a peaceful way, which was very good. I think that his idea was really good and reasonable people do not think of him wrong. Many do, but I think there is no reason for it. I do appreciate him a lot and in my opinion the state situation he left was very good.“

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Olomouc, 18.02.2016

    (audio)
    duration: 02:43:05
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Olomouc, 09.05.2018

    (audio)
    duration: 03:26:30
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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On my way from the court building I stopped in a church and put everything into the hands of god

Miloslav Šváček .JPG (historic)
Miloslav Šváček

Miloslav Šváček was born on February 2, 1941 in Střítěž nad Ludinou as the fourth of five children of private farmers Josef and Aloisie Šváček. In his childhood he witnessed pressure of local communists on his parents to join the newly established agricultural cooperative. As a son a religious parents and former farmers he could not choose a field of his studies after finishing elementary school and apprenticed a  mason. Due to good study results he then was allowed to study evening school at the secondary school of constructions and engineering. During studies he came across Esperanto reading old magazines at their house´ loft. Later he also attended classes and became a member of the Czech Esperanto movement. In March 1969 during a constitution meeting the Czech Esperanto Union was established in Brno and its catholic section, where Miloslav Šváček was in charge of the youth leader. Later he was a member of nine camps of catholic Esperanto paterns´ children in Herbortice with an international participation. On July 21, 1977 the camp was ambushed by the state police and two years later the court in Ústí nad Orlice sentenced Miloslav Sváček for obstructing supervision of churches and religious communities to fifteen months in prison suspended sentence. The trial did not escape attention of the foreign media; the witness even received a supporting letter from the pope Jan Pavel II. Yet, Miloslav Šváček did not get scared and when the trial was over he got engaged in the Esperanto movement again as well as in the catholic church activities. After the fall of communism in 2003 - 2012 he got a function of the president of the International association of catholic Esperanto members (IKUE). Until today he has been living with his wife in Přerov - Penčice and as a chairman of the international section and the head of the Czech Section of the catholic Esperanto members he is still an active member of the unit.