"In that year, 1968, in the spring, I approached - because someone told me it was possible, so I asked themto return... Because they didn't do a search, but they told me to bring them the scout books I had and the Foglar books. Of course, I didn't bring them all, but I did bring a few and I gave them that. They threatened to do a search otherwise, so I didn't know what all my dad had where, it would all be wrong. So with gritted teeth I brought some books and a few magazines, then I regretted it all my life. And in the '80s I learned that it was possible to ask for it, so I wrote to ask for it back. And they wrote me back and said that unfortunately it couldn't be traced and that they would then refund me... about two hundred and thirty crowns they sent me at the time."
"Right from the windows of our apartment we could see the radio, and at the radio station in Pilsen, there was like a small uprising and people were gathering there with banners and we went there and we also perceived it. There were tanks parked there, Russian tanks, so we really experienced it to the fullest - the whole occupation, face to face, and I realized that these are the second tanks I've ever seen in my life, because before there were American tanks in that exact spot."
"That was the middle of 1957. Of course, we had stopped meeting there, in the clubhouse. The year 1958 came, and at the end of January, at the end of the semester, we got our report cards with a D in morals and that we were expelled from all high schools in Czechoslovakia. The "D" in morals is such a strange mark because if someone was very bad, he got a "B" in morals, if someone was almost a gangster, he got a "C" in morals, but a "D" in morals - I never knew anyone, in my whole life I never came across anyone who had a "D" in morals. We all got it because we all went to high school. Well, that morning we were expelled from school. It was such a strange situation where we were used to going to school in the morning and clashing with our friends, with our classmates, and suddenly we had to sit at home and we didn't really have anywhere to go."
"In 1950, as a result of my father remarrying after my mother died, we moved to his new workplace in Teplice, which was quite an experience for a little boy, that Teplice. Because it was shortly after the war again, there were a lot of relics - in quotes - of the Germans. We used to find in the barns, for example, parts of German uniforms, parts of markings, these hook-shirts, gas masks and so on. So it was an extremely adventurous life for the boys. Of course, for the adults too, I guess, because people moved there mainly because there was housing, and part of that housing was the remains of the households of Germans who could only leave with a little luggage. So there were wonderful things in the families that I visited with friends there, like a little projector with German war films. For example, there was a piano that played by itself, you just stepped on some pedals, and one room out of the many rooms that my friend's family had, that room was reserved just for model railroads, for trains. The whole room, there was nothing else, just trains, which was a complete wonder for little boys."
"The Allies, during the night raids, dropped these - it was called Christmas trees, it looked a bit like a Christmas tree. These were flares that were supposed to illuminate the landscape, the city or the bombed object, so they illuminated the whole city, it was an amazing spectacle. Then the bombs started falling and the explosions started and that was even more of a spectacle for a little kid..."
Petr Vyleta was born on 22 September 1941 in Pilsen. His father Josef Vyleta, a pre-war officer of the Czechoslovak Army, was in charge of repairs and import of the fleet of vehicles left by the Allies from Normandy. After the war he worked as a bank clerk. At the end of the war, Petr Vyleta experienced the bombing of the Skoda Works. Although he fell ill with polio at the age of four, he was taken into the Boy Scouts, where he spent six months until the regime abolished it. After the death of his mother, Marie Vyletová, the family moved to Teplice, and in 1954 they returned to Plzeň. In both cities Petr Vyleta founded and led a boys’ club. In 1956 Karel Kahoun, a former scout, began to join the troop, became its leader and in the same year the boys took the illegal scout oath. After Karel Kahoun left for the military service, the troop was briefly led by the witness. This was followed by interrogations at the State Security office (StB), a “D” in conduct and expulsion from all selective schools in the country. At that time the witness was also a member of the TJ Lokomotiva boating club and won the republican championship. He started to apprentice as a fine mechanic of typewriters and finished his matriculation at the evening school for workers. After graduation he continued his studies at the Faculty of Education of Charles University, majoring in history and Russian. In 1965-1968 he worked as a teacher, first in Stráž u Tachova, later in Blovice u Plzně. He left education during the normalisation period and from 1978 worked as the head of the Regional Information Centre (KIS) of the Komenium. After its closure in 1986, he joined Meta as head of the social rehabilitation department and completed his doctorate in educational sciences. In 1990-1991 he was head of the Education Department in Pilsen and in 1991-1993 he was a school inspector. For the following two years he worked as a deputy at the Central School Inspectorate (CSI) and after 1996 he became an administrative advisor at the Ministry of the Interior. From 1997 until his retirement in 2006, he served as Director of the Secretariat of the Deputy Minister of the Interior. Until the early 1990s, he worked with young people in sports clubs. In 2025 he lived in Prague.
