Gottwald seemed to be good-natured, Novotný was like an uncle
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Milan Uhlíř was born on 17 August 1931 in Brno. His father, František Uhlíř, was a trained bookbinder, but worked as a postmaster all his life. His mother Leopolda Uhlířová also worked at the post office. František Uhlíř was part of the Italian legions in the First World War. Milan Uhlíř grew up with his older sister Jiřina in Brno. He was eight years old at the start of the Second World War, a survivor of the German occupation, and in the Moravian capital he also experienced a visit by Adolf Hitler in March 1939. In 1944, his father was arrested by the Gestapo for helping the resistance, briefly imprisoned in Brno and then taken to the Flossenbürg concentration camp. He did not survive the war. Before and after the war Milan Uhlíř attended a scout troop. He graduated from secondary technical school in 1951. In 1952 he started his military service, which he spent in the Castle Guard in Prague. That was where he met presidents Klement Gottwald and Antonín Zápotocký. After the war he returned to Brno, where he worked all his life at Tesla. He participated in the construction of electron microscopes and was part of the team working on electromagnetic resonance. He married and had two children. He retired in 1991. In 2025 he lived in Vlčice near Javorník.
