Ing. Ivan Ptáčník

* 1961

  • “There were young men after their military service who were supposed to guard Palach´s grave in Všetaty. Because people met there on the anniversary of his death and placed flowers there. And militiamen, even though civilians, were issued with machine guns, two magazines of live ammunition, combat boots, and camouflage pants. And they were talking in front of me about the fact that if you hit a demonstrator to their face with an empty machine gun, it sucks because it is light. However, if you load it with a full magazine of live ammunition and hit them to their mouth, you smash their mouth and blood smashes from them. I am quoting their thoughts.”

  • “I think that he joined the net which Moravec started, I mean Mr. Moravec who was in charge of Secret Service for Beneš because in my opinion the net he had could not have been established just by my dad. They had perfect information, they knew about people, they knew who they were going to arrest, when and where something would happen, hence they could adapt to it and cope with it. He said it was not a problem to save someone from Gestapo, but it was difficult to feed and hide them. I mean, you have a hundred or a thousand people, and they are somewhere in the mountains. You must guard them because sometimes it happens that they go bananas, and someone fires a gun. At that moment, Gestapo knows that partisans are there. You need to hide them where nothing will happen, where it is safe. And the food, that is tons of food a year, and you have to secure all that for them."

  • “He was exposed to Agent Orange or more likely to dioxins as the side effect. I have to say, there was not much information about it, they cooperated with the Soviets, Frenchs, and Americans in the treatment. They told my stepfather that he survived dioxins thanks to the fact he had been lactated until the age of two. He had chloracne which means that your whole body is covered which means that there is a pustule, a pockmark, skin, and a pockmark again. They tied him and a doctor took a grinder like a drill with sandpaper, he put on a lab coat, and he ground his face. They used liquid nitrogen for his back, they dipped a blanket in liquid nitrogen wearing gloves, put it on his back, and tore off his skin. He said that he managed it for the first time but fainted for the second time. They then did him liver biopsy in his consciousness; they stuck a little tube in his side, took a sample, and he got about twenty thousand crowns. At that time, they allowed him to go to Algeria also thanks to his father and they recommended him as a treatment against dioxins and these craps Algerian sun and bananas. Everyone gave up on him and a lot of people died there so they allowed him to go to Algeria thinking that he would die there. He survived and lived a surprisingly long time after it.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 14.12.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:57:07
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Praha, 06.05.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:04:31
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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Militiamen were discussing how to smash demonstrator´s mouth with a machine gun

Ivan Ptáčník when he was six years old, 1965
Ivan Ptáčník when he was six years old, 1965
zdroj: witness´s archive

Ivan Ptáčník was born on 15 April 1961 in Gottwaldov, today´s Zlín. His mum divorced his biological father Jan Komárek and got married to Milan Ptáčník. His grandfather became Jan Ptáčník, founder of the Kord liquor factory in Hradec Králové and leader of the famous Václavík partisan group. All his property was nationalised, and he was imprisoned and persecuted after 1948. The witness could not study a chosen field because of political reasons but he later graduated from Higher School of Economics. He started to work as an economist in the Spolana chemical factory in Neratovice. His stepfather Milan Ptáčník cooperated there on the development of herbicide called Agent Orange which was used by the American Army in the Vietnam War. He almost died after a chemical explosion and had lifelong health consequences. The witness posted flyers against people‘s militias in the Spolana factory at the time of the Velvet Revolution. The family gained back their nationalised property in restitution; however, it was in poor condition. Ivan Ptáčník lived in Prague in 2022.