I knew that it would not go on without freedom
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Jiří Strádal was born on 27 April 1943 in Hrdly, Litoměřice district. The family farmed on a rented farm from the Benedictine Order. When it was nationalized in 1948, they moved to the Polabí region to the family farm in České Kopisty. However, it too was nationalized and four male members were sent to prison. Mother and her children moved to Terezín to live with her sister, from where she was forcibly evicted to Hukovice in Sudetenland in Silesia at the end of 1953. In 1954, father returned from prison, and thanks to his relocation to the Sudetenland, witness was able to study at an industrial school from 1957 to 1961. In 1961, when he did not get into university because of his background, he worked in a chain store in Česká Ves. From 1962-1967 he studied at the university, after which he was in the army. In 1969 his brother Václav emigrated. From 1969 to 2001 he worked in Pikaz - the design office of automobile factories. In 1976 he built his first hang glider and became a pioneer of flying in Czechoslovakia. He retired in 2021. He has a wife Anna and a son, in 2024 he lived in Prague.
