RNDr., CSc. Jiří Ludvík

* 1924  †︎ 2016

  • “I was to be sent to forced labour in Germany. I excused myself that I had a broken leg. I went to that German office, and I feigned that I had a broken leg, I made myself a plaster. And they postponed my deployment in the Reich, they postponed it twice. And then I found my way into the construction office at Avia, so I was basically doing forced labour, but here in Prague.”

  • “With one of the brothers, he was called Linhart, we went and disarmed the German command towards the end of the war, the commander and his whole complement. We had a sub-machine gun. And the major took of his revolver belt and asked us to let him and his men go in peace, without weapons, of course, to leave Prague. So we let him go, but he had to gather up everyone in the area, where the German command was stationed, and we designated the route they were to take, on foot, because they wanted to reach the American zone, to be captured by the Americans. But it didn’t work out in the end, the Russians were already here, and they set on them somewhere; less than half of them reached the American zone.”

  • “They actually visited me several times, that was interesting. They were here three times, the comrades from Prague 4, and they wanted me to join the Party. I didn’t join the Party. To which they asked: Why? I said I couldn’t, that I was a practising Catholic. And they accepted this reason, they didn’t pressure me any more... I was already head of the laboratory at the time, and its operation depended on me. The worst thing was that, without Party membership, I wasn’t supposed to head the department at all, at the Institute of Microbiology. But it was an expert matter, they didn’t have experts in this field. And also my connection with Professor Málek. He even vouched for me so that I could make research trips to the West, actually as the only one - for toxoplasmosis. [Q: And did you later get in trouble for not being in the Party?] They threatened me, of course, saying that if I didn’t join the Party, I wouldn’t be able to stay at the head. And I said: ‘So I won’t.’ ‘And what will you do?’ ‘I don’t know, perhaps sweep streets...’ ‘Reconsider it, you have to be in the Party if you want to stay at the head.’ But I didn’t join. And it was Málek again who supported me, I was on very good terms with him. I published actively - whereas the head of the Institute of Microbiology had a citation index of 4–6, I had about 105. Thanks to the toxoplasmosis and thanks to my publications I became immune to everything.”

  • “That’s an American helmet, but that was already after the war, in Kdyně in Šumava, there were Americans there. I was given it. They were from General Patton. I also had a ‘touch’ for General Patton. He wore a helmet like this, but it was gilded... that was typical for Patton. I saw him several times, but I never spoke with him. Well, and the Americans got all the way to Smíchov. Unfortunately, they had to pull back, there was some agreement between Eisenhower and Zhukov, or whoever, that the Americans must not reach Prague, the agreement was that it must be liberated by the Russians. As if. They didn’t actually liberate it, of course, Prague liberated itself. The Russians arrived post factum.”

  • “My main activity in the resistance was to inform about movements of the German army here in Prague. That means, I knew which regiment was stationed here in Dejvice at Masaryk Students’ Hall. So, how many people were there, whether there was some movement there. Well, and then I was also tasked with locating the anti-air guns around Prague. And when they later bombed Prague, they acted according to that information. [Q: That must have been dangerous!] Everything was dangerous. We had a system set up, I would pass on messages, but I didn’t know who was on the next step, how the resistance group was organised. I would leave the messages under a tree, say, in Florenc, and someone else would then pick them up.”

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    V bytě pamětníka v Praze 6, 26.11.2014

    (audio)
    délka: 02:24:09
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Dangerous, you say? Almost everything was, back then

Jiří Ludvík as a school-leaver (1943)
Jiří Ludvík as a school-leaver (1943)
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Jiří Ludvík was born in Pilsen on 25 December 1924, his family is from Domažlice District, from Záhořanský mlýn. His father was an officer and staff captain, he was stationed in Pilsen as commander of the administrative section of the 2nd Infantry Division. As a pensioner he was later employed in Prague at the Pension Institute of the Czechoslovak Army. Jiří Ludvík attended an eight-year grammar school in Pilsen, he was in the fourth year when the family moved to Prague. There, he continued his studies at the grammar school on Strossmayer Square, which he graduated from in 1943. While still in Pilsen he joined the Scouts Movement in 1934. As a Cub Scout he was part of the 2nd Troop Stopa (Track), in Prague he continued his activities in the Scouts troop Kruh (Circle). He underwent Wood-Badge training to become leader of the troop; he later functioned as an instructor. He was active in the Czechoslovak Scouting leadership, in the education committee, which he chaired. After passing his matriculation exam he was allocated to forced labour in Germany. He feigned a broken leg and thus avoided both the first and the second transport. In the end he was sent to work at the Avia factory, at its construction office in Bílá labuť (White Swan House) in Prague. He worked there as a precisionist for the Arado seaplane. In May 1943 he got in touch with the Intelligence Brigade, a resistance group established by Scouts and headed by Jaromír Klika and Adolf Karlovarský. His task was to leak blueprints from the construction office, which were then sent abroad. He pinpointed the locations of anti-air guns around Prague, he followed the movements and activities of German units in Prague. During the Prague Revolt the Intelligence Brigade also organised several operations. They forced the Hitlerjugend out of their defensive position in Letenské sady, which provided a key connection between Prague 6 and Smíchov. Jiří Ludvík helped build barricades and fought on Libeň Island. Among the incredible things he experienced, one is how he and his friend Linhart disarmed the German command on what is now Victory Square - equipped only with an old air rifle. After the war the witness received several medals of merit, the ceremony was even attended by General Montgomery. Jiří Ludvík‘s family did not know of his resistance activities, they did not find out about them until after the war. His wife, whom he married in 1952, and their son were not told about his illegal work during the war until after 1989. Jiří Ludvík himself did not speak about it, for security reasons, among others. The Intelligence Brigade only met up once after the war, and then it was dissolved. Immediately after the war the witness returned to Scouting, to the 18th Troop Kruh (Circle), which he later led. In 1950, when Scouting was banned, he stopped his activities. After the war Jiří Ludvík applied for university studies in the field of natural sciences, specialising in parasitology and microbiology. After graduating he was employed at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University under Professor Jírovec, first as an assistant and later as a researcher. He worked at the Department of Parasitology, and together with Professor Málek he focused on researching toxoplasmosis. He also worked under Professor Wolf at the Histology Department of the Faculty of Medicine. He finally settled down in the Institute of Microbiology in Krč, where he headed the laboratory and the Department of Electron Microscopy, he was the first person in Czechoslovakia to use electron microscopy to study toxoplasmosis. Thanks to his unique qualifications he was able to get away with refusing to join the Communist Party, and as a world-leading expert, with the help of Professor Málek, he was even allowed to travel abroad - for example, for an almost one-year study stay in Bonn, or to scientific congresses, he lectured at foreign universities. He was a member of the Toxoplasmosis Section at the WHO in Geneva, he worked in close cooperation with specialists from France and Great Britain. After 1990 the Intelligence Brigade reinstated its meetings, and its members were invited to various official events in connection with World War II. The two awards that Jiří Ludvík received after the war, the Medal of Merit 2nd class and the Scouts War Cross, were joined by a number of other medals. In 2003 he was officially included among the veterans of World War II. He died on August 13, 2016.