Dobroslav Zeman

“The destinies of my family were rather dramatic, particularly during the second world war. My father was a Czech and German teacher at a grammar school in Tábor. He was a very active member of the Sokol (the Falcon) movement, an educator at the Jan Žižka z Trocnova District and publisher of the Sokol magazine. He was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Pankrác prison on the first day of the war - September 1, 1939. From Pankrác, he was taken to Theresienstadt and then to Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. He remained in Buchenwald for the remainder of the war. Surprisingly, he survived and came home in the middle of May, 1945.”

Mr. Zeman retired in January 1990. When he was leaving the building of the Ceramics research institute he met the director who had always been a fervent Communist. “On that day, I told him: ‘comrade director, today I won’t say goodbye to you, but farewell’. He replied: ‘Don’t call me comrade director, just say director to me’. Well, I told him: ‘For me, you’ll always be comrade director’.”

“In the summer of 1968, the editors of Czechoslovak Broadcasting in Pilsen had a radio program called ‘Radio Carlsbad’. It was a program for guests of the spa resorts in Carlsbad, which was aired every week in four languages (Czech, English, French and German). I was the French speaker, recording French passages of the text. People were aware of me and knew that I was good at foreign languages. Then August came. It was shortly after the 21st of August and the people of Pilsen know how explosive the mood was at that time. The Russian tanks had already rolled into Pilsen but the broadcast in Pilsen was still in operation. My colleauges called me to say that they had an Italian in the studio with whom they weren’t able to communicate. They asked me if I could come over and help them. I said why not. When I got there I found out that the guy was an Italian communist who was taking his holidays by the sea in Eastern Germany when he learned what had happened in Czechoslovakia. He immediately turned around and came to Prague to protest against it. I listened to what he had to say and translated his speech for the broadcast. The editors then asked me for a favor. They told me that as I was good at foreign languages, I could help them with the translation of a couple of declarations and appeals that they wanted to broadcast. I agreed and translated it for them. There was one speech, for instance, that appealed to the world public, to reject Soviet ships in international harbors worldwide as a form of protest against the Soviet actions in Czechoslovakia. This appeal was translated into five languages and then transmitted via broadcast to the public. I was the speaker, so it was my voice on the broadcast. There were, of course, consequences.”

“I remember when I was in Belgium presenting a program. I was wearing a traditional folk costume from the Chodsko region and I gave a speech in Dutch. A friend of mine helped me learn the speech by heart. It was a double premiere – in the folk costume and speaking Dutch.”