Parents risked everything for the sake of freedom
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Pavel Matějíček was born on 5 January 1948 in Přerov as the youngest of five children of Alois and Marie Matějíček from the village of Hradčany. In December 1949, his parents provided shelter for members of the Hory Hostýnská anti-communist resistance group, operating in the Bystřice and Holešov regions, but also the vicinity of Hranice and Přerov. After the group was compromised, Hradčany was surrounded by police forces on the night of 9-10 December 1949 and during a large-scale raid, many people were arrested, including the witness’s father. Alois Matějíček was subjected to harsh interrogations in the prison in Uherské Hradiště. But unlike the other supporters of the group, he was released from custody due to favourable circumstances and was not tried. Nevertheless, he and his entire family were harassed by the communist regime. His youngest son, Pavel Matějíček, was only able to study at a secondary forestry school at the other end of the country, in Trutnov, North Bohemia, where nobody knew him. After completing his military service in 1968-70, he worked briefly for the forestry administration, but for most of his professional life, he worked as a dispatcher for ČSAD. He and his wife raised two daughters, and at the time of filming (2023), he lived in Tučín in the Přerov region.
