Political prisoners in the uranium mines had been better informed than ourselves as civilian employees
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Jiří Jaroš was born on June 12, 1930 in Zbraslav as the son of Marie and Jaroslav Jaroš. His father was a shoemaker, his mother was a labourer. Jiří spent the war years in the country with his relatives, mostly with his grandfather in Vokov. After completing his elementary education, he trained as a goldsmith, but after the communist coup and the following elimination of the self-employed class, his employer had to close his business as well. Jiří Jaroš never returned to his profession. He began his military service, enrolling at a reserve officer training school. After a year, he was ordered to go to Pilsen to train recruits. He also served at an army theatre led by Emil František Burian, where he had been giving basic training to soldiers – actors, he also organised tours to the border areas where the theatre had been playing at local garrisons. Later he was transferred to a garrison stationed at Prague – Kunratice, yet he couldn‘t get along with his commanding officer and left the army at his own request. He was forced to sign a work contract with the uranium mines in Příbram. He had been working as a blaster and was meeting political prisoners on a regular basis while doing his job. He left the mines after a year due to severe injuries sustained at work. After he had recovered, he started working as a tool grinder at a machine works in Modřany, then he was a director of the municipal cleaning services office at Zbraslav. He left the Communist party after the Warsaw pact invasion of 1968 and had been working at a road maintenance office in Prague – West till his retirement. He was married twice and has four children.
