The regime went after me all my life
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Pavel Dobrovolný was born on July 6, 1934 in Ratibořice near Třebíč. He grew up with two siblings on a family homestead. During the Second World War, there was a forced administration of the farm, and at the end of the war the Soviet army passed through here. Euphoria after the war was replaced by the rise of the Communists to power in 1948, and the family was soon affected by the confiscation of property. The witness’s mother died in 1950, a year later his father Emil Dobrovolný was arrested and imprisoned for half a year. After his release, the family had to leave the farm. The father lived in the nearby village of Petrůvky, the siblings split up - the witness lived with his mother’s uncle in Prague. There he graduated from high school and enrolled at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in the programme of Radio, Film and Television. After six semesters, he was expelled due to an unsatisfactory cadre profile. After military service spent with technical battalions in Šumava, he started working for Tesla, then he joined the Czechoslovak Television. In 1963 he joined CTU again - this time he was able to complete his studies. He married twice, and lives with his second wife to this day. After 1989, their family property was returned to them. He and his wife founded a goat farm in Ratibořice.
