Jaroslav Komárek

“No one could ever complain against me and no one did. When there were checks, when the things turned round as they say, I passed. That is why I asked the Ministry directly to issue a certificate for me that I was not indeed registered in any files, that I was clean. I needed it, because I told myself, you never know. Always when there are changes in the state, when the regime changes, it twists, so I wanted to be certain and I asked for it.“

“The end of the war was amazing. I can still remember as it happened only today. There was no longer work, I hadn’t been in my job for about a week. I was just sitting in the goat shed a made a trough, and then I suddenly heard from my neighbour’s, the blacksmith Vavřina’s, radio that there was an uprising in Prague. I sat on my bike and cycled in the city in order to be in the centre of things. Meanwhile someone arrived at my home in a car and I was appointed a connection between Hořice and Jiřice, for some organisation or other. But I didn’t do the job, since I wasn’t home at that time. I saw what was happening in Hradec, I saw what was happening in Hradec, I saw the Germans discarding their things and leaving from Hradec to Plotiště. They were mainly on the airport. They threw away mainly heavy things, sawing machines and stuff like that, to be able to jump in and depart.”

“It is difficult to understand if you did not live it through. When you live in an environment where you are nothing, it is as if you did not live. You are nothing, others ignore you. It was not just me but many maids, field labourers and others who were given a farm in the border area and suddenly they could liberate from work, many years of work, they could liberate not just themselves but all of their families, which had toiled for years with a farmer and never saved enough to become independent. Suddenly there was an opportunity for these people to make a free decision. That is why so many people, simple people like me, followed the hope for the better. That is why many people joined the party in this way. I was quite active, worked hard to survive. I did nothing special, no, I just worked hard and I was always average or more than average. I always did my work properly, never cheated. “When did you join the Party?” — “Immediately in 1945, on June 5, 1945.”

“It was necessary to survive and live, this is the main principle of every human being. This is the main thing. What good is it to play a hero and be in prison… what good?” — “People who left the army were not arrested, they just went to do a worse job.” — “It’s not about that but why would I leave the army before I was entitled to pension? To start anew after many years?” — “So you had no moral problem with it?” — “I didn’t have. And I will never regret it. This is life, you will learn when you are older. It does not have to be the way it is now, you never know what happens the next day. You live to live, to live for you family, morals never got anyone far, just to the scaffold.”