A single sentence in an assessment brought an end to it all

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Miloš Kučera was born on 17 November 1925 in Prague. His father was a clerk, his mother a daughter of a miller coming from the Pilsen region. During WW II he had to serve as an auxiliary worker and in 1945 witnessed the liberation of Prague. In 1950 he graduated from law, becoming a Juris Doctor. He refused to join the Communist Party on the grounds of his faith in God. For that reason, he was referred to as ‘religious fanatic’ in his assessment file. He underwent military service with the Auxiliary Technical Battalions and then worked in Ostrava’s mines. When in the 1960s an opportunity came up for him to work as a company lawyer, he was eventually turned down because of his 1950s assessment. He worked in blue-collar jobs, attending an evening school of civil engineering and taking up the job of a standard-setter in the Institute for the Rationalization of Civil Engineering. He was never allowed to make use of his legal education.