"When the second year of Technical auxiliary battalion was approaching and the release was on the horizon, we suddenly learned that the service would be extended by another one month of exercise. We said to ourselves that if we survived two years, we would also survive a month. But after a month, they announced another extension for a month. This was even more desperate, especially when, after two months, they said we would remain indefinite. But we were given the option of either staying indefinitely in the shaft with some confidential statement that it would not be more than a year or signing for three years in the military construction industry. I said to myself that it is necessary to get out of the shaft, because there is no guarantee that it will only be there for one year and that the military construction industry had the advantage that it was supposed to be in Brno and that one could already wear civilian clothes."
"Immediately after 1948, an action committee (Its main aim was to help to the communists take over power in the Czechoslovakia) was established at the Faculty of Arts in Brno. There were three assistants - two from history, one from Czech studies. They called a meeting in the largest auditorium and said that from now on they run the faculty and asked us to vote for approval. They asked who was against, after which bunches of hands were raised. They smiled and said, 'The Soviet Union was able to replace intelligence. They completely wiped it out and replaced it with a new one. We could do better, we are further than the Soviet Union in the 1917. So, once again we vote, who is against it. Seven hands were raised. I was not among them and thanks to that I finished my studies. My friend Igor Huleja was among the seven students. He was a history student. They kicked him out. I didn't know the other six."
Jaroslav Peprník was born on February 11, 1927 in Ivančice. In his last year at the secondary grammar school, he was sent for the total deployment together with the whole class to the aircraft factory in Bučovice in September 1944. The parts for the Messerschmitts Bf 109 were manufactured there. After the Second World War, he graduated from the combination of fields - English language and history at Masaryk University in Brno. Three days after the graduation ceremony in 1950, he had to enlist in basic military service and was subsequently assigned to auxiliary technical battalions. He then served for two years at the ground staff in the Gottwald shaft in Horní Suchá and the other two in Brno in the military construction industry. He was not released until 1954 and subsequently worked at the Department of English at the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University. He was not allowed to lecture during the normalization period. He could only publish and conduct practical language exercises. His activities were also closely monitored by the State Security. He could return to his work only after the fall of communism. He has also written a number of textbooks and monographs. In 2019 he still lived in Olomouc.
