Jan Pollák

* 1930

  • "Well, then there was the event that President Beneš died at that time. That was a sad thing too. So the whole of Prague was in mourning at that time, there were a lot of people everywhere. I myself stood on today's embankment, next to today's, as they say, the Dancing House, as it is, and I stood there at the intersection of the bridges and Revoluční street."

  • "We were long-term participants in the second league. We had a really good and efficient team. And it was solved in such a way that some of the tours were organized through ČSTV. It depended on how many of us had someone we knew where, so that the tour was assigned to us. So we managed to combine those tours with the fact that we ourselves ordered a tour as a themed tour somewhere. And with that we got out there and played volleyball. Otherwise, we wouldn't get out. That's how we got through."

  • "Many German women and children arrived who were simply fleeing from the advancing Red Army from that side, like from Brno to České Velenice. It was strange to us, why anyway, well, we did not understand it as boys. Parents were silent, you told us, you did not know anything, we didn't say anything, and so on. At that time, food was scarce, it was found in all kinds of ways. Thanks to my grandmother, that she had that shop, so the farmers and whatever they needed certain goods, so it was more or less exchanged. We got eggs and bought maybe five kilos of nails or something like that. My grandmother had a cutlery shop, she sold knives and such kitchen utensils, well, the housekeepers came again, brought some butter, so it was sold like this. Well, that's how we did it."

  • "Then came the year 1939. Unexpectedly we were informed at school: 'Well, young men, from tomorrow we walk on the right, we have to drive on the right, it's ordered.' We looked at each other to see what was actually going on, but somehow it worked out. During that period, when President Beneš abdicated, Dr. Emil Hácha, a native of Trhové Sviny, took over as president. So, we took it that way. But, what was sad when grandma and mom said, 'So we got food stamps.' These were introduced in 1939. Well, it turned out quite badly, because on the one hand, when we looked at the trimmings, I still remember that, the rolls, the meat cube, the food ration, little sugar, little meat, no butter, it was not good."

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    Praha, 13.12.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:44:58
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Volleyball served as a pass to the West

Jan Pollák
Jan Pollák
zdroj: Post Bellum

Jan Pollák was born on February 14, 1930 in the town of Trhové Sviny near České Budějovice. As a small boy, he joined the Wolves and later Sokol. In May 1938, his father, a factory worker and member of the National Socialists, had to join the mobilization. Jan trained as a toolmaker in 1947. In 1948, he joined TJ Sokol and took part in the All-Sokol Gathering. In August of the same year, he started working at the Avia company in Prague‘s Čakovice. After 1950, he started playing in the company volleyball team, thanks to which he looked abroad during the previous regime. He fought his way into the first national league with the team in 1957. After 1960, thanks to his membership in ROH, he looked into the then Soviet Union. In 1989, he travelled to Scotland with the volleyball team. At the time of filming the interview (2021), he lived in Prague.