They sold the calf, so that they would have money for their father’s funeral. They wanted to drive them to court
Jaroslav Havel was born on the 30th of March 1937 on a farm in Vojtěch near Hlinsko in Czechia. His mother came from an agricultural family and his father was a carpenter. At the end of the Second World War he had the opportunity of experiencing the behavior of the Red Army soldiers who slept in their family’s barn from close up. In the 50s he had to prematurely leave school after his brother’s wedding to save their farm. After the founding of an agricultural co-operative (JZD) in their municipality he refused to take part in the village’s collectivization. The local national committee and JZD pressured Jaroslav Havel and his parents into joining the JZD with all possible means. They punished them for years with forced tilling of land, above normal quotas and taxes. In the year 1962 Jaroslav’s father was sentenced for not fulfilling agricultural quotas. The bullying only ended in the year 1974, when after heated court proceedings the JZD finally took the properties into their usage. Jaroslav never joined the JZD this whole time - against all of the unpleasant circumstances. During normalization he worked in Skuteč in the company Velamos. In the year 2023 he lived in Hlinsko in Czechia.