Ivan Staněk

* 1954

A 1948 – 1989 emigrant/refugee
1989 - The fall of the iron curtain
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    Adventurous border crossing

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    “I prepared the top of the roof I attached between the front window and slid the two ends between the fender and the front hood. I created an armoured car in case of failing to get under and through the toll-gate. The pipe that I had stored in the back of the car to loosen tires or wheels was cleverly cut at a 55 degree angle and I fixed it between the roof top at the front window over the front hood. After the decision was made to go, it was at midnight between 14th and 15th July 1983, I was driving to the building between Klagenfurt and the Yugoslav border line in the mist, at night, while the engine was running. As I approached this object, I could not see it and was driving all the time with the open door along the white line to check, where we were going. As I saw the lights of the building, I immediately changed the gears to two. The children were sitting in the back between the wives, we covered the back seat completely with a think sheet, Jarda took a leather glove in case we had to break out a crashed window. My plan to go under the toll gate was successful. Sparks flickered, the gate was bent, but the car remained intact. We took out our grey passports and requested political asylum.”

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    Magic car roof top

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    “I had a windsurfing board up on the roof of our car. But the garden was not normal, it was magical. There was money we needed to make a new start abroad. But the money made a different sound, so there was only a single person, who knew I was going to run away. It was my brother, who had the absolute hearing and recognized, if the tube contained anything or not. At that time the customs officers had much experience with whatever people could do. We managed to take out the pipe and stuff in the banknotes, and we balanced the other tubes with cut newsprint in the same weight. The garden was also speculatively invented to save our car to be used as a tank when crossing the border. My idol at the time, James Bond, had made incredible things in all the movies, and he gave me the idea that I could walk through a toll-gate just like he did. On a certain evening, when we wanted to choose the option, we found the border-crossing under Klagenfurt.”

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    How they escaped from the police

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    “The customs officers called the Yugoslav police officers, who arrived in a Fiat 600 in order to escort us to the Hungarian border; to show us the way to really go back, so that we would not make another attempt. I got back our car keys and I had to follow the police to the border, but I quickly compared the chances or our and their vehicle and found out that they would not be able to catch us, so I speeded up after some fifty kilometres. I got to another road, they started to follow me, but the Mercedes won, as it went much faster. I ran drove off to the border, the day prior to our departure.”

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    Unsuccessful attempt

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    “We had another ace card in our pocket, which was to introduce ourselves to a family in northern Yugoslavia, which was recommended to us by the Canadian (by a Czech emigrant, my father´s in law friend). We slept over there and they told us what was happening in their country, advised us that the most feasible way would be to buy a travel visa to Austria in Zagreb. So we did just that and received four visas for a fee. When we came to the border with this stamp and an additional confirmation in our grey passports, customs took our grey papers and labelled us as members of a group intending to stay abroad. That's why we were interrogated; our car was held up and we were held in there all day.”

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    Plzeň, 03.05.2018

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I will never regret emigration; every person should use its abilities and pass its best on to the society

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photo: Contemporary photo of Ivan Staněk
photo: Contemporary photo of Ivan Staněk
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Ivan Staněk was born on May 18, 1954 in Prague-Podolí, to an artistic family . His mother was a designer in the former company called Centrotex, and his father, Stanislav Staněk, was a painter. Ivan also wanted to pursue an artistic career, but the commission, which decided about the registration with the Czech Fine Arts Fund back then, did not allow him to have a freelancing career. And so the idea of ​​emigration came to mind. Together with his wife and son, friends and their daughter left in a common car for a holiday to Yugoslavia in 1983. They only got the ´grey´ passes on their journey to travel in the socialist countries only. Passing through Slovakia and Hungary they arrived in the former Yugoslavia, from where they wanted to get to Austria. Twice the Mercedes 220 assisted them on their way to freedom; for the first time escaping from the Yugoslav police, and the second time it was a specially modified roof extension, where not only their money were hidden, but after a small adjustment it served as a ram to underrun or the barrier. At midnight, without lights turned on and in the fog, Ivan Stanek drove cautiously towards the border crossing. The plan was successful, the sparks were flying off, the toll-bar was bent, but the car remained intact. After crossing the border, the group asked for political asylum. From Austria they left for USA, where Ivan Staněk became a successful designer.

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