If people trust each other, everything works much better
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Miloš Miltner was born March 7, 1932 in Prague. His father was a house painter, and his mother was a seamstress. Miloš grew up in Prague-Žižkov and he became a Boy Scout already before WWII. The Junák organization (Czech Boy Scouts - trans.’s note) was banned during the war, and Miloš thus continued with his Scouting activities after the war until the organization became banned by the communists. After that it was possible to engage in Scouting only under the patronage of the Czechoslovak Youth Union. Miloš Miltner trained a shop assistant, later as a machinist and eventually he also learnt the electrician’s trade. In summer 1950 he crossed the border to Austria together with his three friends, but two of them, including Miloš Miltner, were intercepted by Russian soldiers in Vienna, and they were handed over to the Czech police. Miloš was sentenced to seven months of imprisonment and he served his term working in the Mayrau coal mine in Vinařice. After his release he was employed for a short time and then he was drafted to do military service in the Auxiliary Technical Battalions. He married in 1956. During the following political thaw he took some steps for the restoration of Junák. In 1966 he sent a letter to the then Czechoslovak president Antonín Novotný, asking him to be allowed to form an experimental Boy Scout troop, which should prove to have a positive influence on the youth. His request was turned down. In summer 1968 he was however allowed to lead and organize the first legal Scout camp. Miloš received his Scout nickname Jestřáb (Hawk) during the preparation of the camp. The military intervention of the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968 however put an end to the camp and it eventually never took place. Miloš Miltner decided to emigrate with his wife and daughter shortly after August 1968. They went first to Lichtenstein, but after some time they moved to Switzerland where he has been living since. Miloš Miltner worked in the company Brown, Boveri & Cie. He formed a Scout troop for exiles’ children in Switzerland, which functioned within the Swiss organization SPB (Schweizerisches Pfadfinderbund). He was one of the organizers of so-called Exiloree reunions, meetings of Czech Scouts abroad, inspired by Scout Jamborees. When his daughter Eva Miltnerová grew up, she followed her father and she became the leader of the Scout organization. This activity however did not evolve further because the following generations of immigrants were gradually becoming assimilated. In 2005 Miloš Miltner was awarded the honorary citizenship by the city borough Prague 3-Žižkov. For many years he has been working on preparing a several-volume book Heroes Don’t Speak about important Czech personalities related to Junák.
