Antonín Doležal

„Přišel za mnou profesor Hynie [MUDr. Josef Hynie], byli jsme s profesorem Hynie, přes věkovej rozdíl velice přátelští, otevření, mluvili jsme spolu bez filtru. No, a Hynie přišel s homosexuálama, mužskýma homosexuálama, že jako, jak to je, že by to potřebovalo upravit. To byly argumenty. Já jsem to řekl Lukášovi [MUDr. Josef Lukáš], co mi říkal Hynie, Lukáš se zamyslel a povídá: ,Takový chudáci, o co o všechno jsou připraveni, a ještě je kvůli tomu trestat.‘ Takže on svým diplomatickým jednáním v roce 1960 docílil, že jsme byli Československo první země, kde nebyla homosexualita trestná. A to ten Lukáš zařídil, takovým tím svým úžasným diplomatickým jednáním.“

„Já jsem pak měl ještě v 68. roce nabídku, abych se stal ředitelem porodnického sanatoria v San Remu. Protože tam jsem vyléčil jednoho italského milionáře ze zácpy, a on mi chtěl nějak projevit svou vděčnost, tak mně tohle nabídl. Ale já jsem tenkrát, v době, kdy tady už byla sovětská vojska, radostně volil svobodu, protože jsem chtěl dělat co mě baví, a tady jsem si to vydobyl. A nemohl jsem tady lidi, kteří na mě byli vázaní, nemohl jsem tady nechat, a říct: ,Já teď mám…‘. A dělat v San Remu porodníka, „seňora sem, seňora tam“, no tak, to by mě neuspokojovalo, já jsem tady měl výzkum. Jak jsme to říkali, ten výzkum je hnát to dopředu, ptát se, nebýt spokojenej s tím, co je, tak to byl hnací motor mého života, víte?“

“Then came the occupation. The Germans drove up and down Crown Avenue, they had such terrible cars, it was called the tin circus. Dad was in the bathroom, burning all of the documents. Some two days later I was in Čáslavská Street, and one gentleman was just crossing the road. Suddenly, he made a run for it, a car drove up, two people jumped out and started shooting. They shot him in the leg, I just happened to be there. And the man who was there, who they’d caught, was German. So I told Dad about it, who didn’t say anything of course. Then after the war, he said that he [the German in Čáslavská Street - ed.] had been waiting for someone. So that was as close a shave as it gets.”

“Opinion influence? The greatest authority for us was our father, for sure, he was a fighter. When the war broke out in Spain, Dad started working for Red Aid and later organised border crossings for social democrats who were escaping from Germany through here to Hungary and onwards. Dad took part in that. And let’s say that back then Dad had already started leaning more to the left. And there was one incident when the Alexandr Ensemble was here and my parents went to see them perform at Lucerna. And no one was allowed to get in touch or speak with the musicians, it wasn’t allowed. But Dad was surprised to see that the there were members, legionaries of Medek’s independent unit from the right-wing part of the legions there, in the auditorium, who clapped and were enthusiastic supporters of an alliance with Russia at the time. You see, when you look at it the way it’s seen from a present-day perspective, it’s all shifted, but seen as it was back then, it was different.”

“A legionary lived next door, a retired friend of Dad’s, and the whole time, from dusk till dawn, he listened to the radio, all kinds of stations, and scrounged for news all through the war. That was his life. He spoke Russian, no other [foreign] languages. And he ran, saying he’d heard: ‘Churchill, India, twenty millions’, and he said: ‘Mrs Doležalová, this is it! Churchill is in India, and they’re preparing a twenty-million-strong army of Indian soldiers, who’ll come to the aid of the Russians – I guess we’ll be liberated by the Indians.’”