“As I looked at Prague down from the tall building I worked in, so those people, who were riding on a tank shooting in all directions even after those, who were in the anti-aircraft nest in Barrandov slopes. They immediately began shooting after them too. And as they began shooting, it was flying in all directions and I was in the eighth floor an artillery grenade shot right above my head and into the lift shaft. There it exploded. I can tell you I could not hear anything until the morning. I was damn lucky the shaft was made of reinforced iron so I didn’t get killed.”
“… about this Brezhnev. So they brought him in the wheelchair back then. Under his jacket he had some tubing. Up on the stage there was a ramp. He could not stand behind the speaker´s desk, they pushed him with the wheelchair all the way. That could not be broadcasted, everything was censored. And of course, we saw all those non-censored staff. He began: ‚Ééé!‘ And nothing. They we could hear: ‚Tovarišči i tavarišky!‘ Then he said about two sentences and said: ‚Eee!‘ And then they drove him away. We were all just yelling with laughter!“
“Before we entered the united agricultural cooperative so just to force us they came in January and took all our feeding. The militia came from Soběslav and a policeman was there too. They came with a tractor and a carriage and began throwing everything down the loft. The mother stood in front of the barn not to let them in. ‚How shall we feed the animals?!?‘ They pushed her and she fell down. Obviously my father jumped at the asshole, who pushed her and started to strangle him. He was not afraid, he didn’t care at all after surviving concentration camp…“
Jaroslav Steinocher was born on 23 February, 1942 as a son of a miller in Čejnov near Soběslav. In his childhood he had to deal with cerebral palsy and persecutions, which he suffered as a son of a gulag. After graduating at the gymnasium and a training he became a TV repair man. After getting married he moved to Prague, began working as a technician in the TV vehicle. He used to meet highly posted communist politicians and also peaked into the background of the Czech TV. In 1968 worked in illegal broadcasting against the occupational troops, but still remained in TV until 1985, when he began working in the Prague metro. In 2002 he came back to the mill in Čejnov. During his life he got into many precarious situations, and always managed to find his way out.
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!
