Ing. Eduard Hájek

“Another such incident happened to me when we enrolled into the Pioneers [a Communist equivalent of Scouting - trans.]. Back then there were these mass events when everyone wanted to join the Pioneers. Their families wanted them there, for one, and they didn’t want to be outsiders, either. I was naive enough to apply as well. That was a mistake because one of my classmates, she was called Dáša – I know her surname perfectly as well – she said that she can’t be in the same organisation as a class enemy. They really denied my application. Because I was a member of Sokol. Dad was a Sokolite through-and-through. He exercised, played amateur theatre, helped get the Sokol gym hall built in Přívoz. He even had a memorial plaque placed there. So the way I saw it, Sokolites were enemies of the state.”

“I came against that when the war was over. Some women who were housewives like Mum told her that her man was wuss because he’s let himself get arrested and left her with five kids at home. That he was irresponsible. There were such opinions as well. It was mainly reflected in the way we dressed, in our social standing. We were actually paupers. But there were lots of paupers like us back then. The resistance was not acknowledged. Back then I failed to comprehend why the Communist regime was so set on destroying the Sokolites. I mean, they were educating the nation. They did everything for the nation. And that’s how the Communists repaid them for it.”