“We were growing up in the family of a goldsmith, a man who was a master in his profession. He more or less created in gold, silver and precious stones. He made jewellery of a high quality and he himself designed them for his boss as well. So he was the first worker out of the eight in the workshop but he never set his own business. Because he was absolutely reasonable, he didn't smoke, he didn't drink and he gave all his wages to the family, we never felt any shortage. But we were always regarded as children of poor parents and we belonged to working class according to the later Communist division. Even though my father didn't have any higher education because his parents didn't ensure his studies, he was very concerned about his children's highest possible education at that time. Eventually, all his five children graduated from university.”
“He came back totally devastated. We had no idea what was going on, where he was. So we thought that we would be quiet till the State Security show up and start investigating that. But they didn't show up. They had already had him, they simply grasped him. He told me that he was locked in a cell all alone, they didn't let him out and nobody spoke a word to him. They were only giving him some food through a little window. He said he had hallucinations because of his total loneliness. He could see people and he was very sick, mentally very sick. ('Do you know where he was imprisoned?') In Dresden, first in Dresden and then he was transported.”
“Because he wanted to stick to pedagogy he decided. And thanks to the inspector he got a place as a teacher at primary school. He went a bit lower. He worked in Hostomice somewhere in North Bohemia. However, his teaching methods were following. He took the pupils out to the nature, they did sightseeing and excursions, he taught right in the middle of nature. Of course he couldn't teach Marxism-Leninism, it was totally strange to him. So those inspections coming to see him blamed him for it. They pressed him by lowering his wages and threatened with notice all the time. However, he started being interested in musicology at that time.”
“Of course he was thinking about that because of course he couldn't see any ways. He had no chances of his works being published here, he couldn't see any working opportunities here at that time. He took his chance during the three years after the war when you were allowed to travel abroad to the West, students especially. Well, he visited France, Denmark, Germany, he had friends everywhere and he made them easily. He simply made friends abroad easily because of his interests and knowledge. There was no ideological pressure there. Nobody demurred that it was Marxist enough or not. So he had a great chance that if he got abroad he could assert himself according to his competences and his wishes. So he occupied himself with the thought of emigration to the West. Then he met his former student, a younger one, he must have been about ten years younger, the guy. And they arranged that they would try to flee through West Berlin, well, through Berlin because he knew the city a bit.”
“However, it was at the time of the February Communist coup d'etat. Well, he was absolutely politically disinterested. He had no idea about what was going on, he just didn't like it. He didn't take part in demonstrations, neither student ones nor anti-student ones. He went on with his work and with his studies. It did him harm just at his secondary school for the first time. The teaching staff was called on to take part in an hour-general strike. They had to assemble in a large hall and listen all those political and Marxist speeches there. He simply stayed in his teacher's room and checked his students' works. They blamed him for that even later when they terminated his employment with him. He was blamed for showing poor interest in events, in state political events because he didn't take part in the general strike.”
I welcomed the year 1989 with a great relief. I only had the feeling I regretted that my brothers and sisters didn‘t live to experience that. I regretted that most.
Vlasta Lášková, nee Kvasničková, was born in Písek in 1928. There were five children in her family that professed the Church of the Brethren (former Church of the Czech Brethren). Mrs. Lášková graduated from the Faculty of Education which focused on nursery teachings. She worked as a kindergarten teacher and was also involved in founding children‘s villages. She is retired and currently lives in Prague.
The subject matter of Mrs. Lášková‘s memories is the fate of her brother Jaroslav Kvasnička. He was the eldest child in the family born on December 14th, 1920 and son of a goldsmith in Písek. The whole family professed the Church of the Brethren (former Church of the Czech Brethren). They respected the religious principles in their practical lives as well. After his graduation exam, Jaroslav started studying Classical Philology at Charles University in Prague. After the closing of Czech Universities in 1939 he worked as a displaced person in Germany. He finished his studies after the war and worked as a secondary school teacher. At the same time, he went in for musicology and set a few psalms to music. As a devoted Christian, he never associated himself with views of the Communist regime. He attempted to emigrate to DDR but he failed, his plan was to get to West Berlin from there. He was arrested and sentenced to one-year in prison in September 1953. He did most of his term in custody already. Having been released from custody, he was allowed to work only manually. In August 1958, he was framed and accused of attacking his neighbor and for freeloading. He was again sentenced to one year in prison. While serving his sentence in Plzeň Bory, he received a work injury that fractured his spine. Due to the Injuries, the lower part of his body was paralyzed. Having been released from the prison hospital, he was in the care of his brother MUDr. Jan Kvasnička. Jaroslav Kvasnička died due to his injury and consequential health complications at the age of forty in 1960, 18 months after his release. Jaroslav Kvasnička was legally forgiven - the sentence and his guilt in the case of his illegal escape of the Republic were forgiven in 1953.
