PhDr. Josef Jančář , CSc.

“And then the year 1989 came and my colleagues told me that they would like me to be the director. Institute of Folk Culture, how it was called back then, was an institution established and ruled over by the District National Committee. In 1989, the district institutions were to be reorganised. It was clear that there was an unique opportunity to become an institution that would serve the whole country. I wanted or rather needed a letter of recommendation from the District National Committee for the Ministry of Culture, that they agree with the transfer to the administration of the Ministry of Culture. And I went to Prague to the Ministry to Milan Uhde who served as the Minister at that time, he had been my schoolmate at the university. I told him: ‘Milan, this should be done.’ And he said: ‘Well, I trust you when you say it’s worth it.’ And he issued an order that the Ministry of Culture is putting the Institute of Folk Culture located in Strážnice under its direct administration. So, the transfer was sorted out and now we had to find our new aim. At that time, UNESCO published a recommendation regarding protection of folk culture. We submitted a proposal about how it could work in this country. The concept went fine, it was approved and as early as 1994, there was the first conference of UNESCO discussing how their recommendation work in various countries.“

“In the dark of the night, the State Security [i. e. police] arrived, closed the school and said that everyone can leave and go to their original workplace. The priests were taken away or concentrated in large convents where clerics from various places and various convents ended up. We shared the same memories. We, the students, stayed there alone. And the chief of the Security returned and wrote a sorts of protocol with us that we would return to our former workplaces. We thus were allowed to leave. We were not scared at all, we were young boys. It just happened, we couldn't get involved in any way so I only remember it as an ordinary event, one of those that just happen in life.”

“Then we organised other art exhibitions. In 1969, no, actually in 1968, there was a pressure that the museum organise an exhibition. I don’t remember what the theme was supposed to be, some sort of anniversary. And then the Russians came, obviously, the occupation… So, museum, they came for us to the museum. I had those exhibition panels there so they picked them just in time – they wrote the name “Dubček” on them in large letters, went to the front of the crowd and we went to the town square and walked around the square. The Russians did nothing, they only drove by in two armourd vehicles and watched. And then I wrote some sort of a short article for the newspaper and this is how I was fired in 1969.”