Under communism, we didn’t know what was truth and what was lie. You couldn’t trust anyone
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Jiří František Novotný was born on 21 September 1947 in Prague. His father, Antonín, was in charge of Malostranská beseda [a culture centre in the former city hall building] and took care of the running of this important Prague cultural centre until the 1970s. His mother Giovanna came to Czechoslovakia from Italy before the World War II and Jiří inherited her desire to travel. He trained as a heating technician but dreamed of emigrating, a dream made even stronger by his experience during the military service. He worked in the mines in Příbram and then in the ironworks in Ostrava. In 1968 he made his first escape attempt, which came to an end under dramatic circumstances at the Czechoslovak-Austrian border. The second escape was not a succesful one either. However, Jiří Novotný did not give up his dream of living in the West and his third attempt at emigration turned out well – he was able to get to a refugee camp in Italy. He settled in Australia, where he lived from 1969 to 1991. He then returned briefly to his homeland, but eventually stayed in Australia, where he was living at the time of the interview in 2022.
