Josef Ouroda

* 1955

  • “I applied for parole. At work, they gave me good reference I could say. Then this warden came and said: 'Come with me.' But they wouldn't say where they would be taking you. And all of a sudden I was there with the director. I came to his office, there were two men, State Security men obviously. They said: 'Comrade director, could you leave us for a moment?' And: 'Mr Ouroda, would you like some coffee?' I told them we were not allowed to drink coffee, as coffee was banned in prisons back then. 'Well that's for us to decide. Comrade, make us three coffees! We have heard that they gave you good reference at your workplace, so you will be going home soon, most probably. And we are not forcing you but... we need you to cooperate... but we don't have to...' My mother was seriously ill, so I was thinking I would promise them to do that so they would let me out. But in the end I changed my mind. I even asked them: 'So should I just go to see the director and tell him?' - 'No. you will report to a warden and to the Internal Section workers. And they will take care of it.' The Internal Section was this internal police. And I didn't report to them. And there was a parole hearing – and they denied my parole. They stated that I needed to serve the full sentence so that I would adopt habits of a decent working man. And this Dr Vojáček signed that.”

  • “As they gave me this bad reference I pressed charges against them. They took the last of my bonuses away! So I pressed charges, I wanted to prove that it wasn't like that – as I did good at the job, to prove that I was hurt by them. And he, Roštejnský, a State Security captain, had me summoned before the trial. They knew there's gonna be a trial. And he told me: 'Look, just drop it, it's not worth it.' This Mr Roštejnský. 'We will find you a better job.' I said: 'I won't do that.' - 'So do you know what? I will tell them that I found you a job at the Chemical Enterprise (Chemické závody). Without me, you wouldn't have this job and you would go to jail.' And I did this one thing. I was supposed to go to the court and I had a breakdown. I didn't go to the court and I called them – I left him a message – that I was going to self-immolate myself like Palach did. And it went quite fast! It was on March 8th, it was the International Women's Day. So later the State Security men were telling me: 'Why did you do this to us? Comrades were supposed to spend Women's Day with their wives and because of you we all had to come here. To investigate this...' And they took me to a psychiatric hospital.”

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    Praha, 15.10.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 01:35:26
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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Go your own way, no matter where it may take you

Josef Ouroda during the interview
Josef Ouroda during the interview
photo: natáčení Post Bellum

Josef Ouroda was born on January 7th, 1955 in Most. He got into trouble due to politics as soon as a teenager, when he, being a radio buff, started listening to Albanian and Chinese radio broadcasts in Czech and promoted those stations among people around him. He trained as a locksmith and started working in Krušnohorské strojírny engineering plant in Komořany. Shortly after that he got into trouble for his critique of material wasting and other shortcomings that were common factors affecting the socialist economy. As his superiors ignored his complains he found refuge among dissidents. In 1978 he signed the Charter 77 petition. He took part in printing of Infoch, a samizdat news sheet. In 1979 he was sentenced for two years in prison for sedition. He served his sentence in Bory Prison in Pilsen where he befriended other political prisoners, František Pitor, Jiří Dienstbier and Jiří Gruntorád. After he had been released he couldn’t find a decent job, he was working as a boiler cleaner and was regularly arrested on the occasion of various public holidays and anniversaries. The State Security had been trying to force him to emigrate as a part of ‘Operation Decontamination’ (‘Asanace’). Even today, he had been an active citizen and has been monitoring companies that prey on the elderly, utilizing their gullibility for financial gains.