"As scouts we spent one evening at a bone fire near the Pražačka with Russian soldiers. They were accommodated there. We played an old guitar and a mandolin. The Russians were great singers – their singing was truly beautiful. I had the feeling that they were sad. So I told one soldier who played my mandolin so beautifully, to keep that mandolin. He thanked me so much and somehow, as he was very touched, he told me to wait, that he would bring me something. He brought me a German knapsack, a tent component, a field bottle and a belt."
"We received the order from the organization Movement for Freedom to occupy the newsroom of the German newspaper 'Der Neue Tag' in Panská Street (after the war the Mladá Fronta was located there). When we went to Panská Street to make sure nobody would loot the place, a roaring crowd of people passed us in Jindřišská Street. They were taking fat Germans in wheelbarrows from Pečkárna (the Petschek Palace - the seat of the Gestapo). They were naked from the waist up and wore black riding breeches. There were a couple of pocket knives sticking out of their bodies. We saw how one man poked his pocket knife into the body of one of the Germans. We stood next to a man dressed in concentration-camp clothes who said: 'I've suffered a lot from the Germans, but that I couldn't do this, it's inhuman'."
"In 1940, I started attending the School of engineering in Betlémská Street. Before that, I worked as a locksmith in the Kolbenka factory in Vysočany – you needed to have one year of practice in order to get admitted to the school. I had a classmate, whose uncle was the protectorate minister Josef Kalfus (from 28. 3. 1936 to 5. 5. 1945, the Minister of Finance). In his presence, we could say that Hitler's an ass and we didn't even have to be afraid. Sometimes, the director would come to us and say: 'boys, be careful, don't speak so loud'. What we also did was that we once threw red stars all over the school and the director was afraid that they'd lock up his school so we had to go and collect them at once."
"We were at the barricade in Žižkov. My duty had just ended so I handed the rifle to Ota Košťál, who was called Grizzly. The Lieutenant told us: 'three volunteers to the barricade, cover the passage'! He looked at me while he was speaking so I volunteered and with me Vladimir Hauff and one more guy. We were covering the passage and that's when the shooting started. The lieutenant called us back: 'get behind the barricade'! One by one, we were supposed to climb over the barricade. The first one managed to climb over it and nothing happened to him. The lieutenant shouted 'the next one'! Me and my friend Vladimir Hauff stood in the same distance from the barricade. We started running towards it at the same time but because I had always been a lump and he an athlete, he arrived first at the barricade. When he was on the crest of the barricade the shooting started again. I called at him to come down. I thought that he wanted to take cover in the confusion. He remained lying there. I do not even know how I managed to make it behind the barricade. When we lifted him up, we saw that he had a clean shot through the neck."
"In class, our teacher, Mr. Provazník, once asked my class mate Jenyšta where he had his pen. Jenyšta told him that he doesn't have any pen because his father couldn't afford to buy him one. On the other hand, there was one class mate, Bedřich Hromada, the son of an owner of a great butchery shop, who would eat salami and rolls during the breaks. He would cut off a piece of the salami and throw the peel of that piece to the other boys who fought for it because there was a bit of meat on that peel. That was the sort of environment I grew up in and that's maybe why I joined the Communist party later on."
Jaroslav Staněk was born on February 16, 1926, in Nová Cerekev in the region of Vysočina. However, soon after his birth the family moved to the city district of Žižkov in Prague, where his father worked as a tram driver. Jaroslav Staněk attended an elementary school (The First Boy School on Comenius Square) and also joined the Scout. He then attended a grammar school in Dvořákova Street. In 1942, he began his studies at the engineering college in Betlémská Street. Before he took up his studies at the engineering college, he had to complete an apprenticeship at the Kolben factory in Vysočany. In 1940, Jaroslav and other boys from Žižkov founded a scout troop. The Scout main office registered them as the number 52. František Nový became the leader of the troop. However, shortly afterwards, the Nazis made the Scout illegal and its activities had to be carried out secretly. During the Prague uprising, Jaroslav Staněk fought at the barricades in Žižkov as well as in the Prague city center. On May the 5th, they were issued orders in the main office of the organization “Movement for Freedom” (Hnutí za svobodu) in Kollárova Street and were handed out firearms in the house „U Bulhara”. Their first task was to occupy the printing office of the National Bank near Jindřišská věž, the second task was to occupy the editorial office of the German newspaper “Der Neue Tag” in Panská Street. Jaroslav Staněk also took part in the seizure of the agricultural settlement Pražačka. Two of his Scout friends - Jaroslav Bočínský and Vladimír Hauff – died during the fighting on the barricades. After the war, Jaroslav Staněk joined the Communist party by the end of February 1946. After his graduation from an engineering college, he got a job in the Křižík factory in Vysočany where he was assembling gas meters. In February 1948, he organized and took part in the nation-wide general strike. In October, he enrolled in the military center in Pilsen as a private. His training was completed in June 1949 and he was transferred to a course in public-awareness raising for reserve officers that took part in Litoměřice. From here, he was later transferred to the main administration in Prague. Then he spent some time in the Slovak town of Martin, where he served in the political department of the armaments training center. Later, acting on the orders of Colonel Bedřich Kopold, he took up service in the political department of the Military Institute in Prague. After just a couple of months, he was delegated to the Military-engineering academy in Smíchov, where he served in the position of a so-called educational superintendent. He didn’t escape the purges in the Communist apparatus. Two events adversely affected his further fate: the escape abroad of one officer who was transferred to the border guard and the arrest of Colonel Bedřich Kopold. Jaroslav Staněk was accused of being a saboteur and he was deprived of his status of a political officer. In April 1951, he was assigned as a desk officer to the Ministry of National Defense responsible for the area of defense planning. Later, he was transferred to the military department of the Office of the presidium of the government. In 1959, he began to work at the chiefs of staff, responsible for the analysis of information on the French armaments industry. In 1960, he completed his studies at the engineering faculty in Prague. Later, he again worked for the government. After the events of 1968, he was dismissed and took up a position in the Research Institute for mathematical machines. He retired in 1990.
