"So this friend of mine, his name was Jirka Kalvoda, and we went there at night and we found that the library was still intact, that they hadn't come and destroyed the Catholic books yet. So we sorted the books into two groups. The ones we thought were important for faithful Catholics, and we left the other books where they were. After that, they couldn't be saved. But the ones that we wanted to save, we lowered them in crates down to the bank of the Vltava River and transported them in a borrowed boat from the lending office, it was possible there at that time, so we borrowed a boat and we transported the books that we wanted to save to the other side of the Vltava River, I think it was to Kampa, where our friends, also Catholic students, were waiting for us and they thanked us for saving those Catholic books."
"We found out what was happening, as we went to our usual morning prayers and morning Mass, we found out from the churchwarden that some had arrived during the night and all the priests, monks and divinity students were asked to take food with them for a day or so and immediately get into the cars waiting outside."
Josef Matyáš was born on January 27, 1929 in Nekoř near the Orlické Mountains, into a poor family of a local road worker. After graduating from high school, he studied mathematics and physics at the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague and became a renowned mathematician. He spent his entire professional life at the Institute for Radio Engineering Research Tesla Pardubice. He obtained 15 patents in the field of computer technology and optimization of control processes. During his high school studies he stayed in the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star Monastery near Charles Bridge. There he experienced the forced deportation of priests and monks in April 1950 as a part of Operation K. Later, together with several other Catholic students, he took some of the religious literature from the monastery’s library, possibly saving it from destruction. In 2021, Josef Matyáš lived in alternate care of his two daughters in Pardubice and Brno. He passed away on November 25, 2023.
