Jan Vaculík

* 1958

  • "The Charter was a huge element for the merger. It gave great hope. That's why the Charter completely changed the political situation, even though nothing really happened. But when it became clear that hundreds of people were willing to stand up to the regime, that was a big boost. By the way, I was at the apprenticeship at that time, and the head of the apprenticeship came to tell me that State Security came there and that they asked about me. But he said, 'Oh, nothing, nothing. I told them that you had a distinction, that you were an exemplary apprentice and the best apprentice in the class and something. I told them all that. And they asked...' We used to publish a magazine there called Mladý dopravák (Young Transport Worker). 'They asked about the Mladý dopravák as well and I told them I didn't have an issue there at the moment, that would be a problem, you can imagine.' Well, then he sent me to the mountains for a week as a reward. And then we found out afterwards that they had probably been to see him and had a wish that they needed to vacate our apartment for a day. And that their wish was to keep me busy so I couldn't come home. My father was interrogated, my mother was summoned for absolutely nonsensical reasons... Ondráš was at the army in Litoměřice and she was summoned to the department for an interview. The subject of the interview: your son. So mum went to Litomerice and I had the best of it, I went to the mountains for a week and the head of the apprenticeship made it up by saying: So everybody who got a model apprentice badge last year, that's who's going to the mountains. There were three or four of us and we went with some extra skiing. (...) Well, because I was in the mountains, I didn't know that my mother had to go to the unit in Litoměřice, that's what she told me. Dad was at the interrogation. That was the end of January, beginning of February 1977. They needed to replace the listening device with a better one."

  • "When I came for the entrance exam and appeared in the respective classroom, they identified IDs and stuff. I wasn't on the list. The lady says, 'I don't have you here, you can't take the exams. Go to the study department and find out there, then.' So I went to the study department, meanwhile the others started writing the exam, and the lady there searched some lists and said, 'That's strange, your application form is lost. But a month ago, when we were calling you, you were on some list. And now you're not on the lists and your application is not here.' I was a bit scalded by that. The lady said a surprising thing. 'You know what, write out the application again and go do the test. Just write down your name for now.' And now she gave me the double sheet. Of course, there were a lot of testimonials, stamps put in that double sheet before, there were about seven different institutions that had to express themselves. ROH (Revolutionary Trade Union Movement), the party, and so on, the school... And suddenly I had this paper that had been going on for three months before, and I was always happy with every other stamp that came in, that nobody had messed up this time, so I had that paper in front of me completely clean. I just wrote my name on there, went to class. Meanwhile, twenty minutes had passed from the test, so I had a third less time than the others. I was very nervous about it. When I finished, I handed it in and went to phone the head of the apprenticeship, who had previously told me to choose the school I wanted. So I told him how it turned out. And he says, 'They're whores, aren't they?'"

  • "It was an awful lot of different impressions. I can't generalize it with anything. Just the fact that we flew by plane to Copenhagen and from there we took a boat... We spent one night in Copenhagen and then this huge boat that has four or five decks above. Kong Olaf I think it was called. The ship sailed overnight, of course. We slept there in a café because our parents were saving money, they hadn't provided any cabins. And then we got kicked out of the café. Parents persuaded them that my mom and I could sleep on the lounge chairs, but dad and Ondráš wandered around the ship looking for a place to rest. Eventually, they found a warm spot on the upper deck behind the chimney, a cabin with a wooden bench and even a blanket, and they had a great sleep there. And when they left there in the morning, they found that it was the ship's compound. (...) We were also there on the mountains. Dad and Ondráš said that in the morning they would climb a hill. And then they went up it and almost died there, because there are no scales in the very rocks. It was far away, there was no road, it was a terrible stupidity. But they didn't die either."

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We always counted on eavesdropping, wrote on post-it notes at home.

Jan Vaculík with his cat Čičok, 1964
Jan Vaculík with his cat Čičok, 1964
zdroj: Archive of the witness

Jan Vaculík was born on 23 May 1958 to parents Ludvík Vaculík and Maria Vaculíková, called Madla. He was their third son and grew up with his older brothers Martin and Ondřej. His childhood was influenced by his parents‘ activities. The family was bugged by State Security Service (StB), and both parents had to appear frequently for interrogations. He spent his childhood partly in Prague and partly in Brumov, his father‘s hometown. After the occupation by Warsaw Pact troops, his eldest brother Martin emigrated to France. Jan Vaculík was not admitted to high school three times because of his unfitness for the cadre. First he worked as a surveyor, then he trained as a car mechanic. Later, he graduated from a secondary school for workers and finally got into the Czech Technical University. He worked in the Orpheus Theatre under the direction of Radim Vasinka. In the late 1980s, he was prosecuted for participating in a demonstration. He worked at the Czech Shipyards, and after the revolution he started his own business in a company producing measuring instruments. He is married and has two children. In 2024 he lived in Dobrichovice.