"My mom's brother was arrested, he served his sentence in the uranium mines in Jáchymov and in the forced labour camp Vojna, more than ten years. It was the same concentration camp as the Nazis had, only the chimneys [of the gas chambers] were missing. I witnessed this myself, we used to go for visits and it was something surreal, the visit lasted maybe ten minutes, we were not allowed to touch. There was a room, ten to fifteen metres, divided by wire fencing. And we talked through the fence. I remember how they lead them there and back, like in a circus. They had a sort of tunnel there made from barbed wire and they lead them there, guard armed with submachine guns and barking dogs to that room and after a while, the visit ended. What never happened to us, the guards had a passtime, they allowed a visit, the whole family from Slovakia came, ten or more people, and they told them, 'He has a disciplinary infraction, visit denied, go home.' They found it a great fun."
"What was worse, they tried to hurt you through your children. Those were the last interrogations I went through, once they just told me, 'You're such an untrustworthy family, we know this and that about you.' They showed me our wedding photographs, we had our wedding at the Rabštejn castle, and told me who the guests were. 'This is So-and-so, he is an enemy of socialism.' They had an elaborate system, they would say: 'You're untrustworthy, you do this and that sort of things, and what would you say if the Child Protection Services took your children away and placed them into a children's home?' Pretty nasty, isn't that. I told them, with a smile, although the situation was horrible: 'If you have a court order, what can I do, take them.' They were caught by surprise because in these situations, people tend to break down. They let it be. The interrogation was normal, four or five hours. But, I admit that I broke down when I came home."
"At the end of 1968, when certain resistance started to appear at various university faculties and the last event that was important was the so-called sit-in strike. At the end of November 1968. It was done that way, that we picked one faculty, incidentally, it was the faculty of education in Veleslavín Street, and, simply, the students who wanted to aggregated there. The building was full, we locked it and we just held discussions there, various people came to support, artists, not only those from Plzeň, there were Suchý [actor] and Bobek [singer]. They just came to support us. Bakers brought us some bread in the morning, then the butchers came, then they brought us lunch or something like that. Let me tell you, it was crazy because the building was full to the roof. We slept on the tables, on the floor etc. We started to feel a sort of no hope, because various pieces of news started arriving. One said that a strike in that town ended, that they had to disperse. It ended when we got news that - and this is funny - that our people, the People's Militia, are ready to stomp down our strike. Those of us who were involved in organising this, we couldn't admit that something like this would happen. We held our position until the last moment, and then we had to announce that, for these mentioned reasons, we decided to end this."
Karel Syka was born on the 21st of September in 1949 in Plzeň. His father was a well-known attorney, JUDr. Karel Syka [JD]. He participated in the anti-Nazi resistance, for which he was imprisoned in several concentration camps including Auschwitz. In the 1950’s, the family was forced to leave Plzeň where they were allowed to return only in 1965. Karel Syka discovered rock music in the 1960 and became a great fan, he became a memmber one of the first big beat or rock groups that sprang up in Plzeň.
In 1968, he enrolled the Faculty of Education of the Charles University in Prague and in November of the same year, he took part in organising a sit-in student protest. After having graduated from the university, he first worked in the advertising department of Plzeň’s cultural institutions, from 1973, he taught at arts school part-time; eventually, he got a full time job there. From 1973, he was intermittently interrogated by the State Security. Due to his family background, he could not and he did not want to be a member of the Association of Visual Artists [membership in this or similar organisation allowed the artists to be self-employed, otherwise one had to be employed or they would be arrested. Effectively, Karel Syka had to hold a day job.] In 1979, he was involved in establising the First Czechoslovak Gallery of Children’s Visual Expression in Plzeň, today’s Gallery Paletka [Little Palette]. During the Velvet Revolution, along with Václav Šmolík and Jiří Kovařík, they organised the making, printing and distribution of flyers and posters in Plzeň.
Karel Syka stood at the birth of the Union of Visual Artists. In 1990, he was awarded by the Minister of Education. As an independent candidate, he was repeatedly elected to various municipal bodies in Plzeň. He is an artist, honorary chairman of the Union of Visual Artists. In 2016, he was awarded the Historic Seal of the City of Plzeň for his long artistic and educational career and for an important contribution to cultural and social life in Plzeň. In 2019, he was awarded the honorary medal of the Regional Governor of the Plzeň Region. With his wife, Dr. Ludmila Syková [MD], they brought up two children.
In the advertising office in the Park kultury and oddechu [Park of Culture and Relaxation] cultural organisation. 1973, Karel Syka second from the right
In the advertising office in the Park kultury and oddechu [Park of Culture and Relaxation] cultural organisation. 1973, Karel Syka second from the right
![In the advertising office in the Park kultury and oddechu [Park of Culture and Relaxation] cultural organisation. 1973, Karel Syka second from the right](https://www.memoryofnations.eu/sites/default/files/2019-10/syka.jpg)
![During the 1970's with the band Sejf [Safety box]](https://www.memoryofnations.eu/sites/default/files/2019-10/syka13.jpg)
