Pavel Klener

* 1937  †︎ 2024

  • “The experience from the Parliament were remarkable because for example, the Chamber of Deputies decided that all the deputies - because the lustration law did not exist back then - would be lustrated. And in case of a positive result they would be asked to give up their mandates. Some deputies did it but about four deputies did not. And in that case, they read during a private meeting that e.g. Mr. Josef Novák, codename Hurvínek, denounced this and that person and was given a reward like that. And they were sitting there and were not even blushing. And there was no legislative way how to get them out of the Parliament. It really surprised me.”

  • “He was a neighbour who… Two old German ladies who had nothing in common with Hitler lived above us. And he brought the Vlasov army there and he had them taken away just with a pack of clothes. He took the keys from them and then started to nationalize their things. Well, I guess he was a comrade because I remember that his wife suddenly started wearing a red armband in the house. And my grandmother asked her to excuse her but what she was wearing was. And she told her: ’Don´t you know that I am an ardent communist?”

  • “The holidays in 1945 came and it was an interesting experience because I spent the first month in Chrast near Chrudim and Chrudim was liberated by the Soviet Army, so I could see there that people were rather afraid of their liberators because when they were hungry, they took a cow and you could not swim in the pond because they had thrown ammunition in to fish. However, I spent the second half of my holidays in Sušice which had been liberated by the Americans. And that is why I could see the differences between the liberation armies. While the Russians looked like they had just left the battlefield, the Americans were wearing ironed uniforms and polished helmets. And when they saw a group of children, they stopped the jeep and offered us chocolate and oranges. So I tasted my first orange ever in Sušice.”

  • "And I just experienced it, it stuck in my mind when I went with my grandmother to Petřín and there went a procession of captured German soldiers, and when someone tripped or stepped out of the line, they shot him. And before we reached Petřín, there were five dead bodies. These were the first dead bodies I had seen in my life, that people covered with newspapers. And it had a very bad impression on me, because I thought the prisoners should not be shot, and that was totally brutal. "

  • "In November I was in Brno to defend candidacies, and when we went back, the driver had the radio turned on, we watched the events and wondered who would be the Minister of Health, perhaps they will not leave the Prokopec again. We came to Prague, I went to a clinic, I had some work there, but I was hungry, so I thought, I would write it tomorrow and I packed it, I went home. And here Pavel says: 'Dad, Dr. Brezina had called several times, it's very important, you have to call this number immediately. ' So, I called the number, it was the Government Office, they said the Prime Minister wanted to talk to me, Pitra was the Prime Minister at that time, so I wondered, 'Where exactly do you live, we send a car for you?' In a minute there was a Tatra 613, they took me to the government, the Prime Minister told me to be the Minister of Health. Well, I was just ... For an hour, almost the whole hour, I explained why I couldn't be the Minister of Health. I said, 'Look, I can talk to schoolchildren for an hour or so without papers, but I'm not into political talks. Secondly, when I was doing attestation, I was always afraid of the exam from the health organization, I can't do it at all. I will disgrace you. ' Well, I just gave him all sorts of arguments, and he said, 'You know,' and they really knew about me, so I wondered, 'we got information about you. It's a shame. But we have three more candidates.' So, they took me home, I said, 'Children, you could have your father as the Minister.' We were kidding."

  • "And otherwise I was going with my friends here in Mala Strana, because the Vltava river was frozen completely, so we could go from Vyšehrad to Letná, despite the weirs, even the weirs got frozen. And when it wasn't a lot of snow there, it was enough to use blades on a pair of normal shoes, it was a kind of skates on a click. So, I went here in Kampa, I put my skates on and I went to the National Theater, or there was always such skating rinks guarded, or when there was a bit of snow removed, otherwise it was impossible to skate. It was possible to walk on the Vltava river and for many years simply, Vltava river was actually freezing my whole childhood. At the time when they started building dams, Slapy was built as first. I think when they were building Slapy that Vltava did not freeze, just here around Kampa... the lane was frozen and in Podoli the port for little boats - they were frozen and we were skating there and then when the Slapy was built, even these two locations did not freeze here. So I used to go skating, I went sledging at Petrin, maybe it is distorted, but I have the idea that those winters were often accompanied with a lot of snow, so we were going to Petrin actually since Martin came on a white horse until February. So, I enjoyed sledding, I enjoyed skating."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha, 09.11.2018

    (audio)
    duration: 02:12:33
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 2

    Praha, 16.11.2018

    (audio)
    duration: 44:49
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 3

    Praha, 16.06.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 01:26:53
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
  • 4

    Praha, 24.09.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 01:47:47
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

When they asked me for dinner in Paris, they showed me what central heating and recorders were

Pavel Klener
Pavel Klener
photo: archiv pamětníka

Pavel Klener is a haematologist, oncologist, and pioneer of chemotherapy treatment in our country. He was born on 9 April 1937 in Bratislava from where his family moved to Prague after the declaration of the Slovak State in March 1939. He witnessed the cruel behaviour of Czech people towards German prisoners of war in Malá Strana at the end of the war. He had many interests since he was a child: he sang in Kühn Children’s Choir, was an altar boy, and was a member of a Scout troop. He graduated in General Medicine at Charles University in 1961 and because he was not a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, he started to work at the Department of Surgery in Roudnice nad Labem. He managed to transfer to Prague II. internal clinic after a year. From 1965 to 1966, he completed a study programme at a haematological clinic of Professor Bernard in Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris where he got to know the principles of chemotherapy. When he returned, he started to introduce this method as a new treatment in our country. He never joined the Czechoslovak Communist Party. He was appointed professor and head of the oncology clinic in 1988. During the Velvet Revolution in December 1989, he accepted an offer to become Minister of Health of the then Czech government and held that post for seven months. He was a deputy of the Czech National Council from 1990 to 1992. However, he never lost touch with “his” oncology and he gradually returned to his professional and academic work. He worked at General University Hospital in Prague in 2021. He still worked at General University Hospital in 2021. Pavel Klener passed away on September, the 20, 2024.