Josef Motyčka

* 1944

  • “The most significant concerts were always in Pilsen, in the Peklo (Hell) club. And when we started playing the song ‘Back then in 1945’ we almost couldn’t leave the stage. It became an anthem. It was similar in Brno where we had to play double concerts, that is one in the afternoon and one in the evening. It’s interesting that they never banned the Salons, where nine hundred people gathered every week and where people shot from simulators. These were the strongest experiences. My wife and I still have this memory that involves my release from prison in November 1971. Back then we sat in the first row. First, Michal welcomed the friends who had returned, and then in one song he replaced the words ‘Richmond prison’ with ‘Ruzyně prison’. My wife and I started crying because we couldn’t take it anymore. The next day they accused him of praising criminals in the newspaper but for us it was such a strong experience. We were very good friends with him for many following years.”

  • “The song ‘Blízko Little Big Hornu’ was on the first record, which could still be released with the Greenhorns name. The following record was released under the heading Greenhorns / Zelenáči. Eventually they had to be called just Zelenáči because it was simply not possible anymore. They even banned songs of Pepík Šimek, such as 'Já jsem vandrák a karbaník' (I’m a tramp and a gambler) or 'Zkouřenej jsem nehezky' (I’m nasty high). All that could only be recorded after 1990. The boys were high-principled, and, unlike the Rangers, they never played at the political festival in Sokolov nor did they set up their own party group. The one at Rangers was led by Honza Hájek. The only thing they made them do was some festival in Ostrava, with many bands that the boys didn’t like. I also told them that if they decided to play in Sokolov, I would quit as their manager.”

  • “My wife’s birthday was on May 26. That day I saw her from the prison window being taken out for a walk exactly on the spot where we also used to go. Above it was the watchtower with guards with sub-machine guns, but that’s not important. I want to tell you something that captures my feelings at the time. I figured that I’d try to get her a secret note and wish her happy birthday. Ever since the children’s homes I’d been really good at shooting with a slingshot. I pulled the elastic out of my sweatpants and I doubled it and wrote the note. I hit her pretty well through the slits, even though she was quite far away. It fell on her fellow inmate’s feet. She casually picked it up and asked the others: ‘Is there any Eva here?’ My wife was walking right next to her, so she got the message and I was really proud of myself.”

  • “Usually, I don’t even have the courage to read that article. But sometimes I read it and I think about how something like this could have been published, how someone could dare write something like this. That’s why our first reaction was how it was. We sent them a letter explaining everything and a request through our lawyer. In the request we asked them to publish a correction within eight days. Which they didn’t do, so we took it to the Municipal Court of Prague. In the first hearing, which was very fast, no one from Květy or Rudé právo showed up. During the second or third hearing my attorney Svačina told the judge: ‘I would just like to remind you that a month ago you fined my client for coming an hour late. Back then he brought you a ticket and a confirmation from the Czechoslovak State Railways that his train wasn’t running.’ The judge said that it was okay and that everyone should come a little early, so that this wouldn’t happen. But Svačina pointed out that the defense counselor had not appeared before the court a single one time and the judge said something I remember to his day: ‘And you think I can fine the Rudé právo magazine?’”

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Praha, 10.03.2019

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    Praha, 13.11.2019

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    Praha, 15.11.2019

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    Praha, 17.01.2020

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They wanted to criminalize me at all costs

Picture of Josef Motyčka, mid 1970s
Picture of Josef Motyčka, mid 1970s
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Josef Motyčka was born January 14, 1944 in Prague. His father died of tuberculosis when Josef was six years old. His mother then placed him into a children’s home because as a single mother she didn’t have time to take care of him. She died of cancer several years later and Josef’s older brother became his guardian. Josef studied at a hotel school in Mariánské Lázně and later at the University of Economics in Prague. While studying, he started working at the Czechoslovak Youth Federation and thanks to that he went on a business trip to the UK. Ever since then he maintained contacts with the International Voluntary Service organization, established by the UNESCO. The height of their cooperation were two international working camps in Mariánská near Jáchymov. In the summer of 1968 Josef managed to arrange for work placements in the UK for eight hundred Czechoslovak students. He tried to do that again the next year but the arrangements went awry just a few days before the departure because of the Czechoslovak government which banned the event. The ‘Květy’ and ‘Rudé právo’ magazines subsequently printed a series of inaccurate articles in which Josef and his colleagues were called crooks. Several lengthy trials made Josef and his wife attempt to emigrate. However, when departing from Budapest they were both arrested, sentenced and imprisoned for six months. After their release Josef worked as a laborer and manager of the Greenhorns band, which performed under the name Zelenáči during the Normalization period. In 1984 his wife Eva and their son applied for and were granted political asylum in the USA. One year after that Josef was expelled from the country to join them under the Sanitation operation. After the collapse of the Iron Curtain the family gradually returned back to Prague and became the instigators of the first student foreign exchange programs to the USA. In mid-1990s Josef found his name in the so-called Cibulka lists of State Security agents. Josef went to the Municipal Court in Prague which ruled in his favor and delivered a judgement that disproved any cooperation with the State Security.