Dalibor Horák

* 1965

Sudeten Germans, Witnesses of local events connected to WWII, Svědci lokálních událostí z éry komunismu, The underground
21. 8. 1968 - Invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops, 18. - 21. 8. 1969 – mass demonstrations against Soviet occupation, 30. 5. 1953 – 3. 6. 1953 – The monetary reform and subsequent public upheaval, 17. 4. 1969 – A. Dubček’s resignation, start of the “normalisation” period, 30. 5. 1945 – 29. 10. 1946 - Withdrawal of Germans from Czechoslovakia, 17. 11. - 29. 12. 1989 - The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
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    His wife crocheted the tricolor for a cap

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    “I have such an emotional experience ... As my wife and I were equally attuned to, we had a two-year-old son who barely walked and went to the manger. So the wife immediately crocheted flowers in national colors with a tassel. My son got it on a beanie, he went to the manger with it and the nurse in the manger asked, 'What do you have, Přemeček?' As the tricolors were not available in the small city at all, so we wore it stitched on coats... "

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    The boys played football; the Czechs played against the Germans

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    “The boys used to play football, like the Czechs-Germans. And there was a fight there. And someone was crying, a Czech boy was crying that someone had taken his balloon or something. And then came an adult Czech and hit the German, who was accused. And then he asked: 'Whose balloon was it?' And it was the German´s! Yeah, so the Czech still hit the Czech, that he basically lied."

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    All of a sudden, we went digging instead of school

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    “However, my dad was also very young back then. And he, as I say, was such an ideal communist, the old communists who controlled the village did not like it much. Well, there was a revival process, and Dad was expressing his thoughts, he was very open and he was not a master of compromise. He thought everything was said openly at party meetings, that was his conviction and so he acted. Well, we got to 1968, which I do not remember, but nevertheless it had an impact on our family during the screening in 1970s, when the local communists made my dad accountable for all his activities. And I remember - because I hated going to kindergarten ... so I spent my earliest years of my childhood mostly with my dad under the school desk. Or later, around the age of four, sitting with the older children in the bench. And I remember going to that school with my dad like that, and I just didn't go to that class suddenly, but went digging with my dad instead. Because he ended up as director out of a blue. And he started working for the masons."

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    Olomouc, 31.10.2019

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    duration: 01:08:04
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Let’s not forget that before November 1989, Czechoslovakia was a midnight kingdom where dancing and singing was forbidden

Dalibor Horák was born on June 4, 1965 in Vítkov near Opava. His father František Horák spent his basic military service as a member of the Inner Guard and as such he took part in the suppression of protests against the currency reform in Pilsen in 1953. After graduating from a military school in Prague, he worked as a politician at the Bytíz labor camp, where he realized that the communist regime was not what it seemed to be. He worked as a teacher in Štáblovice. Because of this, the family moved to Uničov, where Dalibor joined the grammar school at the end of the 1970s. Uničov Grammar School was famous for the fact that there were teachers who were fired from other schools. Dalibor met with underground culture and as a talented musician he started to play with the well-known underground band Brix Bar Band. The band performed at secret festivals of the other culture, which, however, often ended prematurely by police intervention and the band performance was often cancelled. Dalibor enlisted in the army, but after a while he got the so-called blue book and was exempted from service for health reasons. He never returned to the underground community. He took part in a demonstration on August 21, 1968 in Prague, signed a petition for the release of Václav Havel. In the post-November era he joined the Civic Democratic Party, served as mayor of the town of Uničov and since 2016 as deputy governor of the Olomouc region.

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Photos (1)
  • Dalibor Horák during an interview shooting in 2019
    Dalibor Horák during an interview shooting in 2019
    photo: Pořízeno při natáčení rozhovoru v r. 2019
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