“I know two people who leaded it, they are still alive, but I don't want to name them. It was a thing that was reckless. But you know, it was a terrible pity that a German house was demolished here in Brno. Fortunately, they forgot Turnhall. I'm glad it remained. If I destroy something, I must have a replacement. To this day, I have not achieved there was a memorial. And they made a park there.”
“I distinguish between Communists who did harm and who did no harm. Some were harmful. Maybe Makovsky was in the party, but when he was sent to church, he was supposed to decide whether to destroy it or not, I'm talking about the altar in Jedovnice, which I reconstructed. And he came there, knelt down and prayed. And yet he was a communist. But the other Communist again destroyed, such as the administrator of the chateau in Rájec, where the Countess and her son remained. He was so vulgar. When the boy went to school, he smeared their jam on their bread in the evening to make it slush in the morning. And it was the Communist, Jirůšek, who got the distinction. For example the Communists solved and said something, we should do it anyway, but don't, don't ...! They were afraid to add that word to God. So that is how it was.“
“And I have to say no. The Germans perceived what was happening in Brno, but they were not convinced fascists. Here in this case they were informants. Maybe in Zidenice there was Fuchsová, who reported and everyone knew about it. She was a Czech and reported, but the Germans, the old residents, were not fascists. Many Jews lived here in Brno, they spoke German. I remember it today when I went to Orli Street, so we went there with my grandmother and she wanted to buy me a shirt, and the German woman told her we only have debts ... instead we only have long ... And the Germans from Komárov or Tuřany, they wore scarves and sold sauerkraut and called, 'Dear lady, come here!' They tried to speak Czech.“
Miloš Stehlík was born on 14 November 1923 in Brno and is one of the prominent personalities of the Moravian metropolis. He spent his childhood in Židenice and Juliánov in Brno. In 1934 he attended elementary school in Brno-Židenice and then attended a real grammar school in Brno-Husovice from the age of eleven to nineteen. Both his parents died when he was four years old, so he was looked after and raised by his grandmother and aunt. During the closure of universities during World War II, he attended a language school and was to be deployed for forced labour in the empire, but he refused and had to hide the whole war. After the war he studied art history and classical archaeology at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University. When he joined the Memorial Institute in Brno, where he still works, the Communists forbade him to repair church monuments and forced him to join the party. He refused it radically. During the communist era he managed to secretly restore the altar in Jedovnice, followed by a definitive prohibition to participate in the preservation of religious monuments. The Communist regime considered him an agent of the Vatican. The witness is still working at the Institute of Monuments and in 2001 he was awarded the Ministry of Culture Prize for heritage care.
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!
