But you could, comrade, sign that you do not agree with the Soviet occupation so we will expel you!
Zdeněk Friml was born on the 23rd of June in 1934 in Jaroměř but he and his parents lived in Trutnov. In 1938, after the annexation of Sudeten, they were expelled and moved to Jaroměř. In 1940, he started attending boys’ school and in 1944, he enrolled at a Gymnasium. At the end of the WWII, he saw the Jeeps with the American soldiers going to Velichovky where General E. Schörmer had his quarters. In 1949, he started studying at the secondary technical school in Prague and later at the University of Chemistry and Technology where he specialised for power plants. He graduated in 1958 and started to work in the Opatovice nad Labem power plant. In 1960, he got married at the Old Town Hall in Prague. He worked in the research department of of the ZAZ tannery in Jaroměř, later in the Research and Development Institute of Leather Goods in Hradec Králové. In 1967, he joined the Communist Party. After the August 1968 occupation, he was expelled from the party, demoted from his management position and forbidden from publishing. In November 1989, he managed the technical background and sound systém at the protests and meetings in Jaroměř. He became the speaker of the Jaroměř chapter of the Civic Forum and got co-opted to the town council. He joined the Civic Democratic Party and served several terms in the town ocuncil. In 1990, he started his own business. In 2023, he lived in Jaroměř.