Peter Neuwirth

* 1954

  • “January of 1989 came – so-called Palach Week. Even though during that time, I had the opportunity to participate in the demonstrations twice, it was much worse there. They were able to close off the whole Wenceslas Square, so all of us there, I would say around 10-20 thousand people, were stuck in the mosh pit. Demonstrating, arresting and beating took place. What I had seen there was the perfect demonstration of the aggressive totalitarian power, and I was sickened by it.”

  • “There was a red star shining on one of the Prague palaces in Wenceslas Square, and the crowd was shouting: 'Put out the star!' And it happened, in about 10-15 minutes, someone turned it off. At that time, I remembered what my aunt used to say: 'Once more the star will shine and then it will stop'. I felt very relieved, and I told myself that now is the time; something needs to be done immediately. So I took all the proclamations and posters at hand, and the next morning I went straight to Marcel Strýko. There was already a group of his friends sitting in his apartment in Košice and we agreed on founding the Civic Forum.”

  • “It was in the morning - our uncle was visiting from Bratislava - when my mother shouted: 'The war is here. Wake up!' First, we wanted to accompany our uncle to the train station, so that he could return to Bratislava. Only, the trams were not running through the square anymore because the invasion troops were passing there. We witnessed the desperation of people who, with their bare hands, tried to prevent the soviet troops from passing. They say that there were also Hungarian troops, however, we only saw the Soviet ones in Košice. People were trying to prevent it in all ways possible. They were throwing stones, bricks and the like at the colonnade. It was the place where an unfinished hotel Slovan, now Hilton, stood. I saw those people covered in blood, the shooting and it was the day, or the moment, I realized that the communists had actually betrayed us.”

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Bratislava, 13.05.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 02:06:10
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Príbehy 20. storočia
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The generation of March 2018 should be talking to the generation of November 1989

During the session
During the session
zdroj: archív pamätníka

Peter Neuwirth was born on November 6, 1954 in Košice. He was raised in Catholic and anti-communist tradition. His relatives were ostracized and discriminated against by the regime. Peter witnessed the bloody events of the Warsaw Pact troops invasion of Czechoslovakia in Košice. He rebelled against the regime and graduated from high school with difficulties. Peter was a friend of Marcel Strýko, a dissident and a philosopher. He took part in the Palach Week demonstrations in January 1989 as well as the demonstrations of November 19, 1989, in Prague. Peter and Marcel Strýko founded the Civic Forum (OF)/Public Against Violence (VPN). Peter was politically active until the end of 1992. He did not agree with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and is still actively engaged in civic matters.