Petr Fejfar

* 1959

  • "Based on the fact that they did not answer our discussion club, we went to the fountain in the square. It was, I think, Sunday, and we started yelling. –People come and find out what's in Prague and what's new! We're here at four o'clock tomorrow. And people came, the news spread. We had the paper that we wanted a discussion with the National Committee and they did not start it with us or did not answer our question. Based on that, we took the paper that we wanted a discussion. –Look at them. We wanted to discuss with them and they did not answer us. It was the first large demonstration in Česká Skalice. Three hundred or four hundred people gathered at the fountain. We got out there, it started and lasted five minutes, the door of the National Committee opened, the chairman of the National Committee and an official from the District Committee came out. The chairman said - Mr Fejfar, we have something to tell you. Citizens break up! The assembly is illegal! But the people didn't break up anymore. It was shortly after November 17. The police and STB officers were allegedly hidden in the National Committee and had arrest warrants prepared for us. "

  • "We drove in police big cars, green Antons. I think they were roburs. We drove somewhere to the airport. Wenceslas Square was marked there, let's say. The practice consisted of getting out of the car, assembling units, some rows. The commanding officer commanded - we had no one against us to do the extras. I don't think there were any demonstrations between 1978 and 1980. We pretended to perform the intervention in a unit with a unified command. The use of batons forward or the deployment of a shield was practised. That's how we were prepared. I think that's how they practice suppression of demonstrations to this day. "

  • "When I served in Prague 1 in a motorized unit as a student at a police school, prostitutes were chased there. I know a few times older cops threw me out of the car to go for a walk. I don't know what they did to them then. And I remember something else, also. It's probably still done today - older police officers had nice places to "hide". After midnight they said to themselves, 'We are going there. Let's go to sleep for a while. ”The let their walkie-talkie on, and the three cops went to sleep in the car. I also remember, as we always stopped at Wenceslas Square for sausage at midnight. It was the highlight, I enjoyed it- a sausage fried on burnt fat."

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    Praha, 19.02.2019

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    duration: 02:11:39
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He escaped from the communist VK among the hippies. He sang protest songs with the band Pig Farm

Petr Fejfar in the 70's as a guitarist at a concert
Petr Fejfar in the 70's as a guitarist at a concert
photo: Archiv Petra Fejfara

Petr Fejfar was born on February 7, 1959, in Hradec Králové. His father was a clerk, his mother a seamstress. His maternal grandfather, a master hatter, lived for years in Paris. Petr Fejfar was trained as an auto mechanic but also graduated with a high school diploma. In 1978, he went to the police school to join the Emergency Regiment of Public Security, graduating in 1980, but soon left the police for health reasons. In the first half of the 1980s, he moved to Česká Skalice. He played there in the underground band Pig Farm. In the second half of the 1980s, he became a member of the Civil Liberties Movement and the Independent Peace Association. The State Security was interested in him, but he refused to cooperate with them. In 1989, he was one of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution in Česká Skalica. He became mayor in 1990 and remained in office for ten years. From 2000 to 2006, he served as a senator of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. In 2020, he lives in Česká Skalica and devotes himself to culture.