Jiří Wonka

* 1950

  • "Matka byla špatná, v té době ještě žila babička. Tu jsme uklidili do nemocnice, bylo jí asi 88 let. Ještě chápala, co se děje. Lidé se s námi báli mluvit. Z domu, kde jsme bydleli, byl na pohřbu jediný soused. Matka říkala, že se nám báli i kondolovat a že když oni nám nepřišli na pohřeb, ona už nikam také chodit nebude. Byly tam možná ještě dvě staré paní a ten jeden soused, ten se nebál přijít sousedovi na pohřeb. Jinak tam z baráku nikdo nebyl."

  • "V roce 1986, jak jsem říkal, 26. května nás zavřeli. Vrátil jsem se za rok. V Hradci to byl ale teror, tam jsem byl devět měsíců, mlátil mě Ivo Vyleťal za výstřižky o Gorbačovovi –tenkrát už se něco měnilo a já jsem si je vystřihl. Začal mě mlátit do páteře a já ochrnul. A jak to bývá, obratem mě trestně stíhali, že jsem napadl dozorce. Ale vzhledem k tomu, že jsem byl stíhaný, tak do odložili, protože jsem byl stíhaný za těžší zločiny, než bylo verbální napadení. Jednou mně zavázali oči, pálili mě cigaretami, házeli mi tam špagát, ať se prý oběsím, a dodali, že jsem svině německá, nebo co to povídali. Poté jsem šel na Ruzyň, ale tam jsem problémy neměl."

  • "Udělali to tak, že bratra odvedli v železech, vodili ho po městě, matka to viděla z okna. Ať se na vás klienti kouknou, jak vypadá advokát chudých, říkali mu. Strašně ho ponižovali, vodili ho i po závodě."

  • “They were sadists like the SS, they burnt me with cigarettes. No one would believe it. When I came back from prison, I was checked up by American doctors brought by Jiřina Šiklová. And they said the last time they’d seen something like that was in Nigeria.”

  • “I was lying in Thomayer Hospital at the time. The future senator Václav Benda phoned me that he’d been tasked by Petr Uhl to inform me that my brother was dead. So I had to interrupt the treatment. Jiřina Šiklová worked there as a cleaning lady at the time, she sent my mother some kind of tranquilliser pill. I wondered how she’d get through it... She was sixty-seven or sixty-nine years old. She found out about it at the post office in Vrchlabí, when she overheard a conversation of the local clerks: ‘Mr Čáp, here’s a telegram, deliver it, Pavel Wonka died in prison.’ ‘Well, at least it’s over for him now, I mean, he was in prison all the time,’ the other man remarked. To which my mother said: ‘Mr Čáp, what are you saying?’ That’s how my mother found out about my brother’s death. But the worst was when we had to identify the dead body, that was not a pretty sight. The only thing we have left from my brother is a broken, bashed up suitcase covered in sticky tape. That’s all that was left of my brother.”

  • “Viktor Vaničků, the butcher’s son - and butchers were prominent figures back then - placed fourth at the running race. And although my brother came in ahead of him, the school’s headmaster awarded him the potato medal [a Czech term for fourth place - trans.]. My brother was sad, but he didn’t cry and he said: ‘When I grow up, I’ll fight for justice.’ So we carried that sense of injustice in us since childhood. That’s why my brother and I were strongly connected to each other.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    na ZŠ Dr. Fr. L. Riegra v Semilech, 14.04.2014

    (audio)
    duration: 01:16:31
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 2

    Vrchlabí, 30.01.2016

    (audio)
    duration: 01:44:33
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 3

    Vrchlabí, 24.02.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 01:57:06
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
  • 4

    Vrchlabí, 17.10.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 01:04:40
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

Defend your family. Fight for truth and justice

Jiří Wonka s bratrovým psem 1977.
Jiří Wonka s bratrovým psem 1977.
photo: Archiv Wonka Jiří

Jiří Wonka was born on 8 April 1950 in Dolní Branná. He comes from a family of Czech Germans. During the tumultuous post-war years the witness’s mother Gerta was raped twice by members of so-called “looting guards”. The witness’s father Ludwig Wonka died from a twisted bowel in 1953. Jiří’s mother raised the children by herself. Jiří Wonka trained as a mechanic and completed an evening technical school while employed. His brother Pavel trained as a car mechanic and then applied to study law three times, but was denied. Pavel therefore took up studies by himself, and he later provided amateur legal aid to those who wanted it. When he was convicted in 1984, Jiří Wonka and his mother went on a hunger strike with him at Prague Castle. In 1986 Jiří and Pavel Wonka announced their independent candidacy for the elections to the People’s Chamber of the Federal Assembly. Both brothers were arrested. After twelve months in custody, the Municipal Court in Prague pronounced their sentence on 26 May 1987. Jiří Wonka was sentenced unconditionally to twelve months of prison for inciting public outrage. He was tortured in prison, causing such permanent injury that he was awarded a disability pension in 1991. Upon release he signed Charter 77 and was subsequently fired from his job. He earned his living with menial labour. He was repeatedly brought to trial for protest letters addressed to Communist offices and courts. On 26 April 1988 his brother Pavel Wonka died in prison under unexplained circumstances. In 1991 Jiří Wonka managed to have all the Communist verdicts on himself and his brother struck down. However, of those who judged and tortured his brother, none were punished.