"The war was ending and they were rushing them, and my grandfather couldn't do it anymore because he got sick, while saving his mate there, with bilateral pneumonia. He survived so that on the transport where they were already rushing them, he couldn't stand it medically. He collapsed in a ditch somewhere, and in the morning the family found out he was there. They weren't being shot anymore."
"I'd send him somewhere. With a question mark. Well, I had to say something, because, and I did it reluctantly, but judiciously, so as not to hurt Seifert, with whom I had a very, very nice relationship and we were close. I would absolutely never do anything to him or hurt him, so I didn't want to discuss it publicly anywhere. And if I did, it was rare and everyone around me knew it. What I said and how I said it. I didn't spill any secret anywhere. Not at all."
"By attacking on one leg, I had to accept that I would walk a little more difficult. But otherwise I didn't mind and I got used to it until now. Now it's gotten a little worse, so I walk with a cane. But when it was, of course, I couldn't do everything possible with these boys, so I could see by the beginning that I wouldn't be able to do everything, but it ended up being all for my good life going forward, because if I hadn't gotten sick, I wouldn't be sitting here as a doctor. I got into grammar school because I was so disabled, because it was a terrible time for me as the son of a priest."
Alois Volkman was born on 18 September 1937 in Chudobín, near Litovel. His father was a priest of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church. At the age of three, he fell ill with polio and then suffered health complications throughout his life. Because of his disability, he was able to devote more time to his studies. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Palacký University in Olomouc. He got married, immediately after graduation he moved to Prague to join his wife and got a position in his first job at the OÚNZ Kladno. In 1968 he started working as a district doctor. From his youth he devoted himself to poetry. During his lifetime he published more than fifteen collections of poetry. In 1983, first as a doctor, he met the poet Jaroslav Seifert. They built a friendly relationship and met regularly for two years before the poet‘s death. Between 1985 and 1987 he worked as a secret agent with State Security Service, providing them with information about Jaroslav Seifert, his family and his immediate surroundings. He spoke publicly about his cooperation with State Security. He had two children with his wife. Alois Volkman died in January 2024.
