Miloň Novák

* 1947

  • "Sometime in September 1978, that is, a year and a half after the daughter was born, dead, we got a call from the doctors from Motol, from Dr. Šimánková, who took care of my son until he died, and from Dr. Černá, who was the head of the maternity ward, saying that a little girl had been born in Motol, that she was three days old, and would we like to see her. But to come back in about two more days. When she was five days old, we arrived there with a car and equipment, with bedding - and they told us they couldn't give her to us because it had to go through some authorities." ("So her mother gave up.") "The mother gave up because there was still another problem, she didn't want her from the beginning because she had a son and she got pregnant again during the six weeks after the delivery, the two children were somehow born... and they didn't allow her to have an abortion. So she knew beforehand that she was going to give up the daughter. So we got there, and then we had to deal with the authorities first. And my wife said that if they don't give her the baby immmediately, she'll be there for a week and a fortnight and a month waiting in Motol. And they gave her to us, imagine. The doctor Černá said she'd take it upon herself if there was any problem. So we brought her home. And we waited for a year for an irrevocable adoption, because it was still revocable. And everybody knew it, my friends. And they told us that they would defend our flat, the little girl. I always remember that... So, well, we still have her to this day."

  • "There have been several court proceedings, I think at least three or four times. We were always summoned, I think it was at the Ovocný trh. And the officers who arrested us on Wenceslas Square were supposed to come as witnesses. Which never happened. Then, eventually, they were to be brought in by a police escort, which never happened. And yet we were convicted, by JUDr. Jarmila Ortová. So we got three months, I got three months suspended to three years, I think František Charvát got two months to three years of probation. And the interesting thing was that when we heard the sentence, judge Ortová said that if we appealed, we would get prison."

  • "He was in charge, but imagine that I... I didn't find out until after my dad was long divorced. Then he started, he was already thinking about when he was gonna die and so on. And he pulled out this paper that I have here, where he describes this thing. And he told me, for the first time, that he was in charge. I had no idea he was in charge. The fact that he came to see me in Pankrác, I thought he was the chief of Prague 1, not the commander of some task force. I had no idea about that, and I don't think my dad wanted to talk about it much."

  • "Then they gathered us at Pankrác, but... I know it was Pavilion E, it was the very first cell... we were the first ones to be detained - the first cell on the right side: whether it was 301 or I don't know what number it was. Ten of us were herded there, there were ten of us in that cell. Practically everybody - some more, some less - beaten. There was even a poor pensioner with us, who lived somewhere on Wenceslas Square and went to walk his dog, so they took him right away too, he lost his dog. He was crying, he was an old man, so he was there with us. A cell for three, so six of them slept two by two on those three beds and four of us always slept on the concrete. And we took turns. One toilet with no toilet paper, one sink with no towel, and always someone would come in, scream, and we had to stand at attention. And because the first one came in there and asked who could count - and we all raised our hand that we could count all of us. 'And who is at university?' So I raised my hand. 'So you're going to be the boss. Pick one.' So I took that one right away, and it consisted of, which was a huge relief, coming out of the cell with the..., they brought food in these buckets, and I went around the cells putting food in the mess tins. So I walked in the corridor and then we went to wash the tins. And by washing them, there were showers, so we would - always one would guard and the other would take a shower. And other ways like that, so we'd wipe ourselves in these towels that we used to wipe the mess tins too. So like that."

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Father and son stood on different sides of the barricade in August 1969

Miloň Novák at the time of his graduation in 1965
Miloň Novák at the time of his graduation in 1965
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Miloň Novák Jr. was born on 15 June 1947 in Brandýs nad Labem. Both his parents joined the Communist Party after the war. His father Miloň Novák Sr. (born in 1923), a trained typographer, became a member of the National Security Corps (NSC) in 1945. He was sent to study in Moscow, then in Czechoslovakia he received the law degree. His son played sports from childhood and in 1966 he was admitted to study the fields of physical education and sports psychology at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport. At the school he experienced the relaxed atmosphere of the Prague Spring, which he was enthusiastic about. The reforms of the late 1960s were also welcomed by his father, who at that time was already the chief of the NSC Prague 1 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The family disagreed with the Soviet occupation, and his father was hiding in August 1968, so the Soviet soldiers who searched for him at Novák‘s did not succeed. Meanwhile, the son took part in anti-Soviet demonstrations and in November 1968 in a student strike at Faculty of Physical Education and Sport. In August 1969, Miloň Novák Jr. joined the protests held on the occasion of the first anniversary of the occupation on Wenceslas Square. However, as he later found out, his father was already on the „other side“ at that moment, deciding on the action against the demonstrators from the position of the deputy commander of the intervention, Colonel Masák. According to his son, his father disobeyed Masák‘s order to fire live ammunition and instead let the intervention unit push the demonstrators away „only“ with batons and tear gas. Miloň Novák Jr. himself was brutally beaten and arrested. He spent three weeks in a cell in Pankrác in inhumane conditions. Although his father apparently interceded for his release, his son was tortured physically and psychologically and left the cell only as the last of the detainees. After that, the family did not discuss their son‘s imprisonment or his father‘s role in the repressive apparatus, the parents‘ marriage broke down in 1970, and the father was dismissed from the police. Only before his death did he bequeath documents relating to these events to his son. The son was sentenced to a suspended three-month sentence because of the arrest on Wenceslas Square, but was allowed to stay at the faculty. In 1970 he married and a seriously ill son was born, so he had to interrupt his studies. Due to his political stain, he had a hard time finding a job and only found a position with the technical services: for several years he cleaned pavements, worked as a rubbish collector and a driver for a fecal truck before he could start working as a tutor at the boarding school of Spolana Neratovice and later teach there. In 1977, his six-year-old son died of cystic fibrosis, and shortly afterwards, the couple had a stillborn daughter with the same diagnosis. A year later the Novaks adopted a daughter, Šárka, who continues to give them joy to this day. He also worked as a lifeguard, manager of a sports centre and swimming pool, organiser of swimming courses and a masseur. In 1988 he became deputy director of the Neratovice apprentice school. After the revolution he taught from 1994 to 2002 at the newly established grammar school in Neratovice. He was then elected vice-mayor of Neratovice. He retired in 2008. He was living in Neratovice at the time of recording.