Karel Miláček

* 1932

  • “My daughter graduated from (Havlíčkův) Brod at the Business Academy and wanted to go to Litomyšl to study as a kindergarten teacher. This week she mourned, because of course these communist officials of Zahradka sent a testimonial ... in the kinship there are many parish priests, there is no go... they did not let her attend the school in Litomysl. I know she cried a lot about it, and said: ´I was looking forward to it so much...´"

  • “Schwaller, I still remember with Jarda Slavětinsky, of course the boys saw that there was sacrificial wine in the chapel, so we tasted it once and he found out and said: ´You boys, as a punishment you will learn the lord´s prayer in latin by heart, and I will check on you.´ I still remember it by today: ‚Pater noster qí es in cælis, sanctificetur nomen tuum‘ and so on.“

  • “I was terribly lucky that we were returning a little longer since the interview, and from Zahrádka a procession went to Kobylí mine when lieutenant Pulec died. I know that I would definitely stand there next to Karel Blažejovský. He was my best friend, and one more. They shot through that wire, it fell, and it was this Karel ... Then somebody, Dr. Pavlik ... I know that when they were transporting him, he said to me, 'Come tell the Blažejovský family to come for Karel. Unfortunately.'"

  • “I will not forget when Mr. Toufar came there once and hockey was just broadcasted and still today I can hear, Stefan Maslonka, a Slovak reporter, shouting: 'Puck on a stick, puck on a stick, puck on a stick, attention, it must be now!' Father Toufar, as he heard that he had a puck on his stick, he was just bursting with laughter. I told him, 'That means that he has a puck on his hockey stick.'“

  • “We lived across the square just opposite to the rectory my dad had three disciples there, it was cheerful, so the priest Toufar used to go there often; I do not mean that he literally went daily, but he went a lot. He was interested in me, he even inquired about me many times when he went to Ledec to learn at grammar school. I remember coming up once and saying, 'Charlie, you are learning well, maybe you will have a distinction, but I was also told that you are reading adventure novels under your desk, that's not good.' ”

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    Ledeč nad Sázavou, 19.11.2019

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    Ledeč nad Sázavou, 17.12.2019

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I ministered to Dean Schwaller and pastor Josef Toufar

Karel Miláček was born on 26 April 1932 in Háj near Ledeč nad Sázavou. He grew up in a Catholic family in Zahradka and his father Karel Milacek was a shoemaker and led dance lessons. Since an early age the witness ministered in the local church of St. Vitus. First to Dean Schwaller and later to Josef Toufar. In September 1945, during the ceremonial unveiling of the memorial to the victims of Nazism in nearby Kobylí mine, tragedy occurred, because of shooting in a pole of high voltage eight participants of the festivities from the Gardens and surroundings were killed. Shortly thereafter Karel started to study grammar school in Hradec Králové; a year later he moved to the newly established grammar school in Ledeč nad Sázavou and there he graduated in 1951. He continued his medical studies in Prague, where he ended up after three semesters due to nerve strain and was employed as an economist at Kovofiniš. Official authorities of Zahrádka reported a testimony regarding his daughter, which prevented her from attending the Secondary Pedagogical School in Litomyšl. In the mid-seventies he was forced to move with his family to Ledeč nad Sázavou, because the town of Zahrádka disappeared due to the construction of the Švihov reservoir. Since then the witness has lived in Ledeč nad Sázavou.