Ladislav Jeník

“We had allocated certain times when we could go see the Pope. It was one or two days a month and sometimes if necessary he’d call us by the radio and invite us for breakfast, for instance. So either we ate breakfast together or he invited us to his private chapel which was located opposite to his bedroom, to join him for morning mass. At 6 a.m. he always held a private mass where there were twenty priests or other invitees. When he wished to talk to us or when we had something to discuss we sent a message via priest Diviš, his personal secretary and he either invited us to the morning mass or to breakfast.”

“I recall it as if it were today. My class teacher’s name was Mütter, a German by origin. By the beginning of the fourth grade of high school they brought in the so-called Anti-charter, and I was the only non-member of the Socialist Union of Youth in the whole school. Our class chief was walking around with it and I told him: ‘I’m not signing it.’ It circulated around the class and when the break was over, Mütter came in and asked the class chief: ‘Do you have the signatures?’ – ‘Yes I do.’ – ‘Ok, give it to me.’ It was a farce because he was leaving already and then suddenly his head appeared in the door again and he asked the chief: ‘Had Jeník signed?!’ And he replied: ‘No, Jeník hadn’t!’ Two minutes later I was at the headmaster’s office. We had a crazy Bolshevik as headmaster. His name was Levar and he died in 1977 but his replacement was all the same.”