I wrote to President Zapotocky to let my father go free
Jana Fajkošová, née Čermáková, was born on 27 August 1943 in Prague. Her father Oldřich Čermák worked for an American company after the war. After 1948, the Communists tried to persuade her father to join the party, and when that failed, he was arrested in 1950. Oldřich Čermák was convicted of treason, imprisoned in the uranium mines in the Jáchymov region and then in the Vojna camp near Příbram. The witness recalls several visits to her father in prison. He was released in 1960 on amnesty. After graduating from high school, Jana had great difficulty finding a job because of her cadre report. She was refused a medical degree. It was not until 1964 that she was able to find a job at the Institute of Organic Chemistry for a longer period of time, where she worked until 1992. In 1968, her father Oldřich Čermák emigrated to Canada because he feared arrest for his involvement during the Prague Spring. However, he returned from emigration in 1969.