"But of course the past had to be cleaned up a bit, swept away, so the archives were being destroyed. When I look at the archive, which didn't have time to be destroyed, the photographs that were normally taken in the studio showed people dressed in civilian clothes, as well as in the uniforms of, for example, Hitler's youth, or the badge on the lapel of various people - the national comradeship and such. And then it was discovered that he had torn off the badge, stuck another one on, and it worked, but the archive had to be destroyed."
"So when you come out of Kouřimská Street, there is a corner house on your right and that is where Funke lived. Behind that house is a built-up house, before that there was a raised garden and that's important for this narrative. Probably, and I don't know exactly, in 1970, a new owner bought the house. And as it happens, he started cleaning it up. He cleaned meticulously, cleaning from the basement up to the attic, pulling out boxes of old records and photographs. And because he was a man who could handle everything, he found another purpose for it all. That is, he cut up the photos and put them in a drawer in his workshop to keep the screws from falling out. And he put the photographic plates - the big ones - in the bathtub, waiting for the emulsion to swell. Then he scraped it down with a spatula and glazed the greenhouse that he had in the garden. He threw the small photographic plates in the bin and crushed them. I found out because his son-in-law and I worked together. I thought, we've got to stop this. So I got the address - even under socialism they bought up historical objects, especially of such unprecedented importance. I gave him the address and he went to Prague."
Josef Čáslava was born on 19 November 1946 in Kolín. He spent his youth in Plaňany. From 1961 to 1964 he trained as a metalworker at the Laboratory Instruments company in nearby Chotutice. Even then, however, he fell in love with photography, which he eventually devoted himself to professionally. In 1966-1967 he completed basic military service in Neratovice as a radio operator. He moved to Kolín and from 1969 worked for the District Enterprise of Local Industry Kolín as a worker, but also worked as a photographer. In 1981, he became a professional photographer in the small business of the Kolín Municipal Council. Since 1991 he has been in the photography business, cooperating with the city of Kolín and the local car company. In addition, from 2013 to 2017 he taught at the Vocational High School of Business. In addition to his own work, he has contributed to the preservation of the archives of important Czech photographers František Krátký, Jaromír Funke and Jan Sklenář. Josef Čáslava died on 9 November 2023.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
