Jan Pavlík

“Čejkovice really got to me. Firstly I wanted to sort out with the town council (or the local national committee, as it was back then) that it’s undignified for the people in Čejkovice to have a room this size for their medical centre. And that was a knife to [the chairman’s] throat: ‘Either you build a medical centre, or I’m going my own way.’ I said: ‘I’ll get you an architect, I’ll organise it, but you have to get the funds.’ So the way it was, Franta [the chairman - ed.] got caught on the idea, and I got the architects, and we set to the construction of the medical centre, which nearly ruined me. Because the DINH [District Institute of National Health - trans.] director came up and started shouting: ‘How dare you, you build yourself a little medical centre here! We have other centres in bad condition...’ I said: ‘It’s the mayor’s initiative, I’m glad he did it for me.’ That’s how it was, I thought the thing up, and I reckoned it was well thought-up. I think that was sometime after sixty-eight. So things went very quickly because the Čejkovicers were willing to participate in those Z events. Then I started taking an interest in the castle. So I told Franta, who headed the farm there at the time: ‘It’s a pity to let such a castle go to ruin, and it’s in your ownership.’ Well, and when we discussed the matter, I said: ‘You know what, I’ll start one project. I’ll go to the heritage office in Brno, and I’ll take an architect with me, and we’ll go for a nice stroll through the castle and discuss what could be done about it.’ So we got the funds, some preservative action was made, and I said: ‘We’ll also have to get into the people’s awareness somehow.’ Because the Čejkovicers’ attitude was like: ‘So what, let it collapse, what do we care... it just gets in the way here.’ And the farm had this attitude especially, that it’s just an old shack and whatnot... And he was the biggest Communist as well, the manager of the farm, from the board of the district Communist committee, so there were some conflicts there, he even tried to give me a scare, saying I shouldn’t stick my nose into things like that, but I wouldn’t be discouraged. So I went to František Kožík [a popular Czech author of historical and biographical novels - trans.] and told him that I wanted to put on a play there, Governor Šarovec. So he gave it to me, we copied it out, prepared it, and started rehearsing the play.”

“I had been under surveillance by the cops for a long time, and they checked on me wherever they could. I first noticed it in sixty-eight because they came to check on me when I was still in Čejkovice. [Q: Did you ever try to find out if they had you on file?] Well, I’m sure they did. I’m sure they did because I found one, and I reckoned I’d request it. But I found it in some list, my name, as a person on file and under surveillance. They kept coming and... when I was working in the general ward in Hodonín, we were friends with one colleague, Vičánková, and they fled to Germany. So there was some kind of contact here, so when my colleagues emigrated, they started asking questions, of course. ‘Are you in touch with them, do you send each other letters?’ I said: ‘And why shouldn’t I send them letter? They’re friends, so why not.’ They were such a nuisance... And then, when I came to Veselí [and Moravou], one time, I don’t know why, this one suspicious looking boy came to me and started asking me things, and I told him: ‘You know what, take your things and get lost. I have no business talking with you. I’m not going to talk about those kind of things because I don’t do things like that.’ - ‘Then you better watch out so we don’t call you in to State Security.’ I said: ‘Don’t you start making threats because...’ But that was still that regime that watched us. I took it with humour but also with a pinch of fear because of the kids.”