Jaroslav Šebek

“Obviously, to show some loyalty, we took part in the 1 May march. This is where it begun. It was 1 May 1985 and we marched in our uniforms. On top of it we wore green scarves. And we walked with the march through what was called the Heroes of Socialist Work Square. Amazing name. There was a platform there with all those comrades. This is where the march stopped. We also stopped, around thirty of us. We all looked alike and there was no one else like us there except for the nurses-to-be. Suddenly a guy ran in from the sidewalk. He burst into us and began shouting: ‘Scouts, hooray, scouts!’ Immediately, two policemen dragged him back into the crowd so we don’t know what followed. I said: ‘This will be trouble.’”

“My newspaper activities in the scout brought me to the secret police – we publish the magazine Kim. It has been published for thirty-four years without a break, it is our division’s chronicle. Back then, I was spending time with Foglar so I had plenty of materials. Today they are known to the public but back then we included excerpts from chronicles, his remarks, photos, etc., and people were interested. What is more, I had the written series, stories. I compiled the story book Jestřábe, vypravuj. I have to humbly say that I made up this title. And so I put various things from Foglar into the Kim magazine. The boys brought it home and perhaps their parents read it even more than the kids. The opportunities for copying were lousy back then. Someone brought it to the prison in Boleslav - a warden. There they had a copy machine. And he photocopied Foglar’s stories, and they spread around until it got into the hands of certain Mr. Černý, the head of the prison. He found it weird so he brought it to the secret police.”