Karel Pokorný

* 1933

Border Guards, Relative of a political prisoner, Boy Scouts, Sokol, Art and censorship
25. 2. 1948 - Communist coup d‘état in ČSR, 18. - 21. 8. 1969 – mass demonstrations against Soviet occupation, 25. 1. 1969 Jan Palach´s funeral, 19. 6. – 23. 6. 1948 – The Sokol Gathering
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    Taking pictures of the Warsaw Pact invasion in August 1968

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    duration: 01:56
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    "I just came out running into the streets on that day, in the '68: 'People get up, the Russians are occupying us!' And after that, it just stuck on me. Well, it was a terrible time, a terrible time indeed. I took pictures of them invading our country. I took pictures of the funeral, after those two people died in Jičín. I took pictures of the very spot where they were shot. I made a film about it: 'The Broken Shackles'. That film won a lot of awards, but I remember it like today. When I was riding my Pioneer bike. It was a time of my life I could say. I even went to Prague to take pictures of the museum riddled with bullets. The two people in Jičín, they were shot on September 7th. I went to Prague on the tenth of September. again, I took pictures, the museum being all shot up, the burnt-out buildings near the Czechoslovak Radio. That's what I took pictures of, I have pictures of that. I hid it for fifty years, as back then I was afraid. But this friend friend of mine, after the eighty-ninth year, when he saw my album, he said: 'Man, that's heavy, you'd get...' and I already knew where he was going, as he said: 'back then you'd get maybe seven, eight years for that.'"

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    Demoted at work due to his "political activity"

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    duration: 01:45
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    "As I was being put down in every aspect of my life, I adopted this new way of seeing things. When I was fired from my job, I appealed to the President's office, and they took it to the District Branch Council, an they contacted our factory, so the personnel officer came to me and said, 'The director wants you to know this: you'll write one more letter, and he'll find not one, but thirty reasons to fire you from the factory. ' And I said to him, 'Who are you?' - 'Well, you don't know me?' I said, 'I know you, Joska, but the fact that you could lend yourself to this...' He says, 'Well, I'm just letting you know what the director is telling you.' So when he told me that, I said, 'Well, I won't write anymore.' So when I went to the lawyer and told him what had happened, he said, 'Yes, you violated socialist laws and you were justly punished.' At this point, I couldn't say I had just an alternative opinion on the Communist Party, I had, in fact, a serious allergy to it."

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    Hradec Králové, 20.05.2019

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    duration: 02:45:27
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After the invasion started, I took my camera and went outside

Stating his position after 1968
Stating his position after 1968
photo: witness archive
photo: witness archive
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Karel Pokorný was born on 30 December 1933 in Jičín. Like his grandfather, Václav Drahoňovský, who died in a Nazi prison during the war, Karel Pokorný joined the Sokol movement. In the summer of 1948 he participated in the XIth All-Sokol Rally in Prague. After February 1948, Karel Pokorný was expelled from high school because of his father’s disapproval of the new regime. In 1953 he joined the State Defense Guard. After returning from his compulsory military service, he started working at a weaving mill in Nová Paka without any hope of further career advancement. At this time he also began to work in sports reporting. Right after the entry of the occupying armies into the Czechoslovakia in August 1968, he decided to document what would follow. He went to nearby towns and to Prague as well. He recorded a funeral of two people shot by a Polish soldier - Zdeňka Klimešová and Jaroslav Veselý; he also tried to visit the grave of Jan Palach with his camera. Later on, he made several award-winning amateur documentaries. As a child, he joined the Scout Movement and has been faithful to it ever since.

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Photos (8)
  • At Jan Palach's grave
    At Jan Palach's grave
    photo: Soukromý archiv pamětníka
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  • With fellow Scouts
    With fellow Scouts
    photo: witness archive
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  • Stating his position after 1968
    Stating his position after 1968
    photo: witness archive
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  • The funeral of Zdeňka Klimešová and Jaroslav Veselý
    The funeral of Zdeňka Klimešová and Jaroslav Veselý
    photo: Soukromý archiv pamětníka
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  • The funeral of Zdeňka Klimešová and Jaroslav Veselý
    The funeral of Zdeňka Klimešová and Jaroslav Veselý
    photo: witness archive
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  • A performance to celebrate the Czechoslovak hockey team's victory in the World Championship in March 1969
    A performance to celebrate the Czechoslovak hockey team's victory in the World Championship in March 1969
    photo: witness archive
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  • The National Museum riddled with bullets in August 1968 by Karel Pokorný
    The National Museum riddled with bullets in August 1968 by Karel Pokorný
    photo: Soukromý archiv pamětníka
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  • Karel Pokorný during the interview in 2019
    Karel Pokorný during the interview in 2019
    photo: Fotografie pořízená při natáčení
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Kamera je motor, který žene Karla Pokorného dál. Celý jeho život ovlivnily skautské zásady

  • date:
    26.09.2019
  • medium type:
    Internet
  • medium name:
    Český rozhlas, Hradec Králové
  • author:
    Vladislava Wildová