“What followed was struggle to make ends meet, our parents were merely surviving. My dad was not allowed to work in his profession, because he was considered a malefactor who would sabotage the work, and he was thus collecting shards for archeologists and working as a custodian, and mom did some occasional jobs as well. They were barely making ends meet. What usually happened was that they confiscated your apartment and sent you to the countryside, or they provided some accommodation for you there, but this did not happen to us, because we lived in very humble conditions. My younger sister was not admitted to school, and thus she went to work instead of studying, and my older sister was kicked out from the university, because the school of political and social sciences, or how it was called, suddenly split into two halves, and it segregated between the progressive people in blue shirts who had some perspective, and the people of the past, children of bourgeois parents, who could choose either between work in a factory or emigration. My older sister emigrated to Belgium and my younger sister married. We were somehow eking it out with my parents. I spent all my vacations in factories and I was getting to know the working class. Later, in the military service, I got to know the class struggle. The army was differentiated by class, much more so than in schools or workplaces, for example. It is true that I have not done enough to avoid the military service, for many private and non-private reasons. One of the reasons was that I naively believed that there would be shooting sooner or later and that it would be good to learn it. This was a ridiculous idea, mainly because I have not learnt anything like that while in the army, because from the beginning I was classified as an untrustworthy person, without any promotion, and basically without any weapon…”
Miloš Vočadlo was born June 5, 1930 in Žatec. In the same year, his father lost his share in the pharmacy which he co-owned and operated with a partner, and the family moved to Prague. In 1939 his father opened a new pharmacy in Prague 7. In 1940-1945 two relatives from the broader family were interned in concentration camps and one of them died. In 1944, Miloš’s father contracted tuberculosis and he spent nearly five years in medical institutions and sanatoriums. The pharmacy was managed by deputies until 1948-1949. In 1945 Miloš enrolled in a grammar school and in 1948 he applied for admission to the faculty of medicine. The new political regime did not allow him to study due to the political stance of his uncle Otakar, who was a professor at Charles University. Thanks to his uncle’s past contacts and help, Miloš was later able to enroll at least at the faculty of mathematics and physics. In 1950 the political regime forced Miloš’s father to surrender his pharmacy and he continued to be employed there as an administrator of his own property. In 1952 he became ill with tuberculosis again. In 1953 he was fired and he was granted only a very low disability allowance. The family struggled to make ends meet. Miloš’s parents were earning some extra income by doing non-skilled work and Miloš was helping out by taking menial part time jobs along with his studies. In 1953-1955 he underwent basic military service with many personal restrictions. His older sister was expelled from university and his younger sister was not allowed to study at all. In 1969 Miloš’s older sister and her family emigrated to Belgium. As a consequence, none of the family was allowed to travel abroad until 1989. Miloš has been focusing on organic chemistry for his entire life and he authored a number of academic books. He raised four children and now he is retired and lives with his wife in Prague.
vacationing in Sedlejovice (father seated on the ight, mother standing second from right, sister Jelena standing first from right, sister Milena standing first left), 1940s
vacationing in Sedlejovice (father seated on the ight, mother standing second from right, sister Jelena standing first from right, sister Milena standing first left), 1940s
