Jarmila Johnová

* 1949

  • “Us two – me and my dad – signed Charter 77. That was quite interesting. I told Jirka Dienstbier that I thought it was risky, not knowing what the response would be. His feeling was that the 50s were over and that it wouldn’t be so terrible. I expected the worst, that they’d arrest us instantly. Being pregnant, I was very happy I just rushed to the hospital at the moment when Charter was being handed over. When Kristina was born, horrible news were aired on the radio about ‘renegades and turncoats’ who signed an abusive pamphlet. So I was worried. It was touching that Zuzana Dienstbierová came under my window because Dienstbier was detained, and shouted that Kristina’s father wouldn’t be able to come. Then came my mum and shouted that my father was in the Ruzyně prison and that I was supposed to keep shut. That was a good advice. The secret police didn’t come for me to the hospital but as soon as I came home they took advantage of nobody else being around. I was well informed and followed the advice not to say anything ever because it wouldn’t help me anyway.”

  • “I signed it because I wanted to express my stance. I didn’t want to lie. Well, rather, I was lazy to lie. It seemed too complicated. I found it much easier, more sensible and nicer to tell everyone: ‘This is the way I see it and count me out.’ At work in the preservation office I encountered some situations. For instance they began organizing a visit of young ladies to the Russian soldiers’ barracks in Mladá Boleslav. I told them I wouldn’t go. They were like: ‘what do you mean, why won’t you go?!’ I replied: ‘Well, I won’t. Why should I?’ To keep explaining all the time was complicated. So I got rid of it this way. When I signed the Charter everyone knew it because the secret police had it all covered. So it was liberating in a way.”

  • “What I found paramount and liked about the 1960s was that we could speak freely about everything. For me this was an era of questioning. The most important thing of all was to find out – which I hadn’t – why our parents succumbed to that simplified and restrictive setup to which the communist way of thought yielded. Our family discussions were heated. I remember my dad even burst into tears once in the face of us blaming him. We never ascertained how they could come to believe it. They must have known about the political murders. That was inexcusable. They claimed that they realized that there were restrictions but WW II convinced them because it brought civilization almost to its end. They thought that for it not to happen again some sort of central management and control was required. Now that I speak of it, I recall my father once saying: ‘That was a sacrifice which had to be done for those things not to come back.’ Many people spoke in the same way. Pavel Kohout, also my first partner Jiří Dienstbier. His parents saw it similarly. Him who was in between the age of my parents and mine also felt it that way. For a long time he was stuck in it. In fact, I think Jirka Dienstbier’s heart was always in it in some way even though he really was a honest man.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha, 21.06.2016

    (audio)
    duration: 01:54:19
  • 2

    Praha, 01.07.2016

    (audio)
    duration: 01:20:19
  • 3

    Praha, 24.06.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 02:17:49
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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I found it easier, more sensible and nicer to tell everyone: ‘This is how I see it and count me out’

Johnová Jarmila, 2016
Johnová Jarmila, 2016
photo: Eye Direct

Jarmila Johnová was born on 20 January 1949 in Prague. Her father worked in welfare services, her mother as an office worker. Under the influence of WW II, in 1945 her parents joined the Communist Party. After finishing elementary school in Prague’s Žižkov quarter she went on to study at a grammar school from which she graduated in 1967. She had spent the summer months of 1968 as an au pair in Great Britain. In 1969 she resisted the regime for the first time, refusing to take part in elections. In 1974 she graduated from the University of Economics and took up a job at the State Institute of Preservation and Environmental Protection. Two years later she met her future partner Jiří Dienstbier thanks to whom she later signed Charter 77, as did her father Josef John. In early January 1977 she gave birth to a daughter Kristina but soon thereafter got engaged in various activities done by people from the Charter circles. She transcribed texts, transported and distributed materials, photographed meetings of signatories, documents, as well as protests. Later on, she and Jan Ruml distributed Lidové Noviny samizdat newspaper and copy machines used for photocopying unofficial publications. In the course of time she became more engaged with environmental issues, and within the independent initiative Ekoforum she established intense collaboration with Ivan Dejmal. Later she collaborated with Terezie and Andula Hradílková in the Prague Mothers initiative. After the Velvet Revolution she has been active in the environmental civil society, and also teaches English.