Bohumil Žloutek

* 1942

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  • “When the Russians came, my steprother was returning from Switzerland but he had two children and he even returned to the occupied Czechoslovakia. At the same time, my sister was on holiday and my brother was in Switzerland. My brother was there as an intern, he had an internship in forestry. My sister was on holiday. And those two did not return. They did not return for long. We saw them again only after 13 years. And we couldn’t go there, we could only exchange letters. My sister got married there. She married a young physician who was just doing his Ph. D. He’s still alive, he has worked in CERN for all his life. He became a professor and taught in Zürich. My brother worked there in forestry for 20 years, and in a research institute. Then in Australia for four years and after the revolution, he came back and now we live here [in Czech Republic]. But our sister obviously stayed in Geneva.”

  • “Eventually, the negotiations about establishing an United Agricultural Cooperative started. We did not want to join so problems ensued. We were three siblings and none of us wanted to join in because we wanted to do something different. Get apprenticed, learn something and so on. So they decided to press dad into that. They came up awith a false accusation. Because for quite some time, they could not find anything to blame him for, they held him in custody for two months before they made something up. At the time, I was drafted to the army. When I served, my father served his prison time, he was sentenced to three years in jail, they already knew it in the village when he was still at home. I visited him once. I served in Litoměřice and he was jailed in Bělušice near Most and later in Valdice. There, it was lower security. This was a sort of family affair.“

  • “My sister was on a bus to Železný Brod to school and as [President Antonín] Zápotocký had just died, she said while on the bus: ‘Thanked be the God Almighty that Tony kicked the bucket because or mom won’t have to pay two thousand crowns of a fine for not fulfilling the pork quota.’ The quota were enforced pretty strictly. Even drastically. Someone snitched at school and they just kicked her out of the basic school. [Note: this was barely legal as school attendance was compulsory but the ruling régime broke its own rules and there was no way to complain or seek justice for the so-called enemies of the state. If they failed to find a solution themselves, the child not attending school would be another reason to oppress them.] She finished the basic school in Malá skála because our mom was from Malá Skála and a new school was being opened there. The director was her former classmate. She thus finished the basic school in Malá Skála and that’s how it ended.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    ED Liberec, 02.02.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 58:55
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

The Communists took away their farm and their father. They did not give up their organ workshop.

Bohumil and his son are constructing an organ. 1980's
Bohumil and his son are constructing an organ. 1980's
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Bohumil Žloutek was born on the 10th of January in 1942 in Semily. His father Bohumil was a master organist, he worked in the Josef Meltzer’s workshop in Kutná Hora. In 1932, he participated in the construction of the organ in the St. Vitus cathedral at the Prague Castle. The workshop was closed down during the WWII. Bohumil the Elder moved to Bzí near Železný Brod, got married and did not return to organ making as he had to care for the family smallholding. The family did not want to join the United Agricultural Cooperative and submit to the collectivisation. For this resistance, he was accused and in a show trial, sentenced to three years of prison. When Bohumil’s sister expressed her pleasure at the death of President Antonín Zápotocký, she was expelled from school. Bohumil followed in the steps of his father and trained as an organ maker as well. At first, he ran his workshop under the administration of the agricultural co-op and later, in Liberec, as a part of the musical instruments repair shop which was a part of the Petrof piano factory. After the 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies, several family members emigrated. Bohumil’s sister did not return from her holiday abroad and his brother stayed in Switzerland where he was on a scholarship. Bohumil Žloutek was the first organ builder in Czechoslovakia to build a fully mechanical organ. In 1975, his son Bohumil was born; he later continued the organ building family tradition. In 2022, the workshop had already made their 27th opus – a large organ. Memories of Bohumil Žloutek could be recorded thanks to the support of the town of Zásada.