Jaroslav Kreibich

* 1946

  • "But I would say the rarest one that I own is actually the second edition from 1855. That's actually the second edition, it's the book that Bozena Němcová received basically on her deathbed, when she was actually already dying and the publisher Augusta from Litomyšl came to see her, who had promised her in the autumn of the previous year that he would publish the book Grandma. And when he found out that Němcová was on her deathbed, he wanted to make her happy and brought her a few editions of this book and basically gave it to her a few hours before she died. And Němcová not only had her children and her husband around, but the publisher and attending physician were also there, so she distributed the book to her closest friends."

  • "Back then when we met, he took me to a restaurant, to a small hotel like that. I thought he was just a visitor like me, but then I actually found out that he was the owner of the inn. And he offered me whether I would like to stay there for a week and ten days and said: 'You don't have to do anything, you will travel to get to know the surroundings here and I will be very happy if we speak Czech together in the evening.'Well, and when I first saw the first evening he has a job as a cook, because he had about forty guests in that inn there. And his wife worked there at the bar, they also had a waiter and there was a woman from Yugoslavia who cleaned their hotel, so I offered to help him."

  • "So in 1967 I went to France for a few months to find out if it was possible to make a living as a painter. Well, I got there that way, because it was a time when traveling west was a big deal, but already at high school I corresponded with a girl who was from France, and we actually wrote each other for several years. And I then wrote her a letter asking her if she would be so kind as to send me an invitation because it was the only way to visit the country. I finally received the invitation and went to take care of all the documents, which means not only the visa, but I also went to the bank, which promised me that I would also receive some foreign exchange pledge. I received fifteen francs at the time, it was such an awfully small amount. It was just enough to get off the train at the station and going for a sandwich.''

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 14.12.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:01:47
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I envied boys´ dads

Jaroslav Kreibich in 1971
Jaroslav Kreibich in 1971
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Jaroslav Kreibich was born on April 23, 1946 in Prague. The parents divorced and Jaroslav grew up with his mother and sister in Prague‘s Holešovice, where he enjoyed the artistic atmosphere. He liked to paint since childhood. After high school, he went to France in 1967 to find out how the local painters lived. He spent several months there and, among other things, met a Czech immigrant who adored the book Babička do Božena Němcová. He transferred this passion to young Jaroslav, who has been collecting editions of this book ever since. In 1968, Jaroslav went on a trip through Western Europe. After the occupation, he could no longer travel and was not even allowed to study at the academy. So he found a job at the Research Institute of Train Technology. Later, he worked in education, founded a bookstore in Vysočina, wrote reports for newspapers and traveled around the country giving lectures about Božena Němcová.