Jiří Rais

* 1930

Boy Scouts, Svědci lokálních událostí z éry komunismu
1. 9. 1939 - The outbreak of the WW2, 27. 5. 1942 - Assassination of R. Heydrich, 8. 5. 1945 - End of WWII, 25. 2. 1948 - Communist coup d‘état in ČSR, 1945 - 1948 - First renewal of Junák
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    Fragments of an English bomb

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    duration: 01:49
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    “In the first air raid of Plzeň, bombs landed near the Koterov train station. They hit a field and left five or six craters behind. We ran there to have a look at the aftermath of bomb blasts. One of the boys found a bomb fragment, and we were all jealous of him. Sometime later, bombs hit Bolevec; there were some casualties and crushed houses too. A friend who had this four-wheel cart said: ‘Let’s go; I’ll get the cart and we’ll go hunting for fragments in Bolevec’. We went all across Plzeň and searched for fragments in the ruins. We found so many the cart nearly broke. Then we carted them back home like winners and were so proud to have fragments from an English bomb.”

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    Wolfpack boy scout team

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    duration: 01:30
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    “There were many children in our part of the town. Slovany was a young neighbourhood, with at least two kids in every house. We were this ‘gang’ of boys. In 1943, we formed a club influenced by Mladý hlasatel; it was a magazine for children. Jaroslav Foglar who wrote for the magazine was much esteemed. Foglar was a big influence on us. He wrote many books for children based on the boy scout ideals. Of course, boy scouts were forbidden during the war. Still, we formed a team and called ourselves the Wolfpack. We tried to run it in line with Foglar and the boy scout ideas.”

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    Teachers and the Nazi salute

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    “The teachers never spoke about the war. But, when a teacher came to the classroom, they had to do the Nazi salute. Students had to stand up straight and respond the same. Teachers’ attitudes varied. Some stood up as required and duly raised their arm. Others would come in, walk to the desk and just wave their hand, as in the ‘sit down’ gesture. This is how people approached the status quo. Those who were scared made sure to conform. Those who were not so scared were not so eager.”

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    Plzeň, 16.12.2022

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    duration: 01:51:02
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Boy scout values have guided me all my life

Jiří Rais in 2022
Jiří Rais in 2022
photo: plzeňské studio
photo: plzeňské studio
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Jiří Rais was born in Plzeň on 19 January 1930. He has lived his entire life in a house in the Slovany quarter that his parents built. His father was an office worker and his mother a housewife; she helped out at her brother’s farm in Černice during the war. The witness’s values were principally informed by the boy scout movement and Jaroslav Foglar’s books. Despite the Nazi ban, he and friends founded a boy scout club, Smečka vlků (Wolfpack) in 1943. He witnessed WWII and massive bombing in Plzeň. After the war, the boy scout club transformed into the Severka (North Star) club, and the boys would help out with farm and forest jobs during the summer. By the time the communists banned the boy scout movement again, Jiří Rais was adult but the younger boys kept on meeting on as a hiking team. While in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, his co-students included ‘communist cadres’ who could live by different rules than others. Having graduated, the witness joined a Škoda Plzeň plant that manufactured turbines. He worked there for forty years, until 1992. While on the job, je got to stay in India, China, and Cuba. He still meets the former boy scouts of age equal to his.

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