"It was actually something identical to what is described in the film Pelíšky. Everybody was gathered around the radio, which was sizzling, crackling. And the Czech Radio at that time was broadcasting the latest news, and I remember very well that at first I perceived it as some kind of joke when they talked about the soldiers arriving. And then somehow I got out, even though my parents forbade it. But you keep a freshly ten-year-old boy at home, and his friends come for him: 'Come and see, tanks are coming.' And indeed, on the way from Hutisko to Rožnov, actually on the side district road, suddenly tanks, transporters, jeeps rolled in with a terrible roar, and so we understood already as small children that it was no fun anymore."
"It reflected on us as well. My sister, an excellent dancer, highly rated by her teacher, had no chance to get into the conservatory, only a short message came: 'Due to the large number of participants...' And so on. My father wrote, pleaded, all in vain. I remember the very traumatic entry of myself to the grammar school, when the honourable headmistress personally invited me, of course, the headmasters were then only active members of the party. And she said to me what I can consider a great luck, and I remember this literally, it will never fade from my memory: 'With the moral-political profile of your parents, this is the pinnacle of what you could achieve'."
"Before that, it's some kind of a curse on the Jewish family, the neighbours, although they loved to go shopping there because the prices were favourable, great-grandfather Otto was capable, helpful, accommodating, as my grandmother wrote in her memoirs, she never heard him shout, or God forbid that he would lay a hand on his children, much less. But nevertheless, as time went on, when Nazism came to the fore, they [Otto] received more and more contempt - just unfortunately from those neighbours who were so happy to go shopping at bargain prices. My grandmother herself experienced several physical assaults, which, on one occasion, when she was returning from her favourite dance course, she almost did not survive, because some aggressive, brutal adolescent hit her violently until she fell and shattered her skull bone. Unconscious, she staggered home, where she was treated for a long time in a high fever, not understanding at all why this was happening, why he was shouting at her, 'You stinky Jewish girl!'"
Vladimír Vysocký was born on 9 August 1958 in Šumperk. He devoted part of his life to searching for the fate and roots of his Jewish part of his maternal family. This family - the Neumanns - owned a large house with many plots of land and a thriving business in Písek in southern Bohemia. Due to anti-Semitic attitudes, they lost all their property during the 1930s. The Holocaust, which followed the outbreak of World War II, deprived the witness‘s grandmother, Ludmila Neumann Vysocka, of all her close relatives. The Nazis took them on one of the Prague transports to an unknown destination. Ludmila Vysocká wrotedown her memories for her grandchildren in which she recalls and reflects on all the major hardships her family had to go through. Vladimír Vysocký‘s father Zbyněk worked as a partisan liaison during the war. He found his life in danger several times. In 1944, the Gestapo arrested his father - also a resistance fighter and Vladimír‘s grandfather - Miloš Vysocký, who escaped with his life only because the Liberation Front was approaching. Vladimír Vysocký lived a picturesque childhood in the Beskydy mountains, but only until he was ten years old. His father belonged to the reformist communists of the Prague Spring - for him the August 1968 invasion was a betrayal that made him and his family want to go into exile. However, due to mother´s disaproval, this did not happen. After the normalisation checks, both parents were expelled from the Communist Party and in 1971 Zbyněk Vysocký was arrested and sentenced to a one-year sentence in Plzeň na Borech for sedition. After his release, father became bitter and became involved in samizdat activities. His son Vladimír had a poor cadre profile, which had a negative impact on his studies and employment. At the end of the 1980s, Vladimir and his family wanted to leave abroad, but the same scenario occurred as in his parents‘ case - his wife refused to go. In 1985 Vladimír Vysocký joined the Ostrava firefighters, with whom he spent a significant part of his successful working career, contributing, among other things, to the development of firefighting (TFA). In November 1989 he took part in the Prague mass demonstrations that led to the fall of communism.
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!
