Petr Rosendorf

* 1942

  • "He was rehabilitated in 1969. He was awarded some amount as his rehabilitation, and the rest was in securities. But in 1970, there was a new court which set aside the rehabilitation as unjustified. He had to return all the securities and what was paid to him as compensation for the period of imprisonment - some amount - he had to pay back to the regime in two hundred crowns until his death. So he paid back the rehabilitation until his death with two hundred from each salary."

  • "So my mother started - because she graduated from a family school, so she started home sewing for some Drutěva or what it was. But because it was so poorly paid and she barely earned enough to feed us, she went to work for Motex, where she worked shifts, that is, morning, afternoon, and night. So, I had to take care of my brother in the evening when she had the afternoon or night shift. Pick him up from the daycare and do homework with him. Get him fed and, sometimes, when she hadn't gotten back from her night shift, get him ready for school in the morning. Well, there were some curious situations. Of course, I didn't know how to cook at that time! We had a cooker. And I know my mother used to make fried eggs on it sometimes in this little aluminium casserole. So I said, 'I'll make fried eggs.' But I didn't know how. I didn't use butter, oil, lard, or anything. I cracked the egg into this aluminium pan and fried it. Basically, I baked it dry. Well, it tasted like paper, something crazy, I still remember that. That's how I had to take care of it. But on the other hand - I don't remember having puberty."

  • "In 1952, in December, my father was convicted of treason. Because it said that he had a negative attitude towards the socialist system, advocated private property, etc. And associated with people like Dr. Hostička, which was Milada Horáková's party. And for this, he got five years for treason." - "So the first thing: the trial is completely fabricated?" - "Yes, yes. Well, he knew about people who wanted to escape across the border. He was originally thinking of escaping too, but my mom backed him into a corner, saying that if he ran away, she'd get divorced."

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    Praha, 19.06.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 02:03:57
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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The hostile system locked my father up and I had to learn to live with it

Petr Rosendorf, 1956
Petr Rosendorf, 1956
photo: Witness archive

Petr Rosendorf was born on 1 October 1942 in Prague. His father, lawyer and National Socialist Antonín Rosendorf, was first removed from his official position after the communist coup in 1948 and sent to cut down trees. On 5 September 1952, he was arrested, and in December of that year, in a mock trial, he was sentenced to five years in prison for alleged treason. He passed through Pankrác, the Mořina penal quarry, the cement factory in Radotín, mines in Vinařice near Kladno and Rtyně in Podkrkonoší, and was also imprisoned in Valdice, Banská Bystrica, Senica and Žiár nad Hronom. His son Petr was allowed to visit him only three times during this time. Because his mother had to provide for the family financially, Petr took care of the household and his younger brother while he was growing up. He was lucky enough to get into the grammar schol, or, back then, the eleven-year school, but he was not allowed to apply for university despite his excellent grades. At the age of 16, he joined the bricklayers, later working at ČKD in electrical equipment for locomotives and the metro. In 2023, he was living in Prague.