Vladimír Vach

* 1929

  • "I'm glad I got into it, and I have to say that 'I didn't belong to the group of the so-called Vorvana Crew.' These were Oskar, Dulín, Plavec, Eman, Sergej, it was a cadre. And I can tell you that thanks to them, I was - after all, I was sixteen when I came there for scouting for the second time retrospectively, as a newcomer. Thanks to them and their work, because the team you live in is decisive, I think it is me and in the end I am, because then it is all common, that we are formed so much that we remained decent people.”(crying)

  • "And on the way back, at about one o'clock, a freight ammunition train remained in Mstětice. And a passenger train Prague - Nymburk. They started honking and boilermakers flew there [planes attacking locomotives]. It was the two-body lightnings; I saw a black man behind it. They took it, like this against each other, they fired, not along the length of the train, they fired at locomotives. I saw the bullets hit those ankles. I really saw that. At first I was a hero and I was in no hurry. People were crammed out… I can say that it is only in such tense situations, when you really do not know what is happening, that people become absolutely ruthless. Some of them at all costs - they were fighting out of the train. Women and men too, it did not matter. I'd say I was really disgusted by that. Disgusted. When I saw it."

  • Full recordings
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    Praha, 31.01.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 02:00:27
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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Thanks to scouting, we remained decent people

Vladimír Vach during recording
Vladimír Vach during recording
photo: natáčení

Vladimír Vach, scout-named Jufura, was born on May 1, 1929 in Nymburk into a railwayman’s family. In 1938 he joined the local scout unit, but in 1940 its activities were banned by the Nazi authorities. During the war, he trained as a mechanical locksmith in the Kolben-Daněk plant in Vysočina, but even then he realized that he had ambitions to continue his studies. After the war, he returned to scouting. At that there were two boating units operating in Nymburk, the Vorvan Crew and the Blue Fleet. Vladimír Vach became a member of the second of them, but he also became friends with members of the Vorvana Crew. The place of the scout meetings was the Tortuga clubhouse in the Villa of the Rumls in Zámbí, Nymburk. In 1948, Vladimír Vach began studying at the Czech Technical University, and the paths of the Nymburk scouts gradually diverged - some joined the anti-communist resistance, some later emigrated. After graduating from university, Vladimír Vach remained at the faculty as an assistant professor. In 1958 he was fired for personnel reasons due to the alleged bourgeois origin of his wife Hana. He later worked at the Research Institute of Chemical Equipment and the Research Institute of Steel, where he remained until 1990. In 1968, he helped build summer camps in renewing the scout movement.