“I was fifteen in 1945 and Boy Scouts helped the national committees as connections. I was a kind of medical connection, I rushed from one pharmacy to another, brought bandages, medicaments etc. When people were returning from concentration camps a lazaret was established in the Police’s monastery, which was without a religious order. There were many people from concentration camps in the lazaret. I have a very sad memory. There was this old man, well, old from my perspective, perhaps he was in his forties or fifties. He had open wounds and lice in them. I still have this memory in me. It is a moment I always remember time to time.”
“My dad had large handkerchiefs because when he used to walk from heat to the fridge, my mum made him two red handkerchiefs with white margins. When we learned the Morse code I, idiot, took the two red handkerchiefs, put them on sticks, climbed up over Police on the Hlavatka hill and sent signals to my two friends below. A man came to me shouting: ‘Are you stupid? You can’t wave red flags!’ From Police the place where I sent signals was clearly visible. This is how I learned the Morse code. Quickly I rushed down with the handkerchiefs.”
“We had terrible problems with caricatures and jokes… Mirek Liďák, the draughtsman, was really sharp. First he ridiculed the bureaucrats, then he even made political caricature, including concrete faces. We went from trouble to trouble. I used to bring the pictures for approval and as far as I remember no single issue went without a comment.”
"The club was, of course, managed in the spirit of scouting. We had a number of scout things, because the house of the Strauchs was a major hiding place for the things of our troop during the war.For example, we had a number of Svojsík's brochures on scouting and other brochures that we had hidden in our clubhouse, that was situated in the garden of the brewery. We also had a totem, we had everything. Our club Chronicle, the Chronicle of the Club of the Guardians of the Political Walls dates back to 1945. So we were quite successful in continuing the scouting throughout the war."
"The first camp after the war was interesting in that there were still Werwolfs roaming the area and thus we were fully armed.For instance Vašek Hybš, who was a cub scout and acted as the camp bugler.He was the guard and would pull behind him a big machine gun on the ground."
"In the 1960s, I was employed as the editor of the Mladý svět magazine that actually initiated a discussion about tramping. We established a section of the magazine called "The campfire" and we founded a "Settlement of ostriches" in the editorial board. We were interested in the tramps. We had access to the Golden Key with the Ryvolovi brothers and others."
Jaroslav Weigel, with his scout nickname Grey Beaver, was born on January 2, 1931 in Rychnov. He grew up in a family of a beer brewer who worked in a brewery in Police nad Metují. In 1939, he joined the cub scouts in Police nad Metují and planned to attend his first camp in 1940, but due to the banning of the Scout, the camp did not take place anymore. After the banning of the Scout movement, he founded with his friends the Club of the Young Announcer (they called themselves the Guardians of the Political Walls), which existed until the end of the war. After liberation, Jaroslav became an advisor of a scout troop in Police nad Metují, but after a holiday camp he moved with his family to nearby Broumov-Olivětín. Here he helped to found the 5th troop, which gained a very good reputation. But soon the family moved again, this time to Mnichovo Hradiště. There he became the member of the local scout troop for a year and a half. In 1950, he graduated and began to study at the Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague, the field of art education and history. After graduation, he worked in the Mladá fronta publishing house as an editor of children’s magazines and in 1959, he changed to the magazine Young World, which in the 1960s - as a consequence of the easing of the regime - progressively started to pay attention to the phenomenon of tramping. Jaroslav became an instructor at the tramp camps Slunečná paseka pod Křemešníkem and at the winter courses at Výrovka in 1969-1970. From 1967 until the present, Jaroslav Weigel has been a significant personality in the popular Prague Theater of Jára Cimrman, initially as a designer, graphic artist and stage designer, since 1970, when he had to leave the editorial board of the Mladý svět, also as an actor. His son Michal performs in the same theater as his father.
photo: záběr z filmu "Grizzly" odvysílaný v pořadu "Dětské oči a bojovníci proti totalitě" (http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10210209947-detske-oci-a-bojovnici-proti-totalite/408236100204002/titulky/)
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Jaroslav Weigel - co founder of the readers' club
Jaroslav Weigel - co founder of the readers' club
photo: záběr z filmu "Grizzly" odvysílaný v pořadu "Dětské oči a bojovníci proti totalitě" (http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10210209947-detske-oci-a-bojovnici-proti-totalite/408236100204002/titulky/)
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The club of the defenders of the political walls - the detail of the totem
The club of the defenders of the political walls - the detail of the totem
photo: vyfoceno a naskenováno pamětníkem Bohuslavem Strauchem-Grizzlym
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The club of the defenders of the political walls - Jarda Weigel
The club of the defenders of the political walls - Jarda Weigel
photo: vyfoceno a naskenováno pamětníkem Bohuslavem Strauchem-Grizzlym
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The club of the defenders of the cliffs of Police - Kamil Turek and Zdeněk Streubel at work
The club of the defenders of the cliffs of Police - Kamil Turek and Zdeněk Streubel at work
photo: vyfoceno a naskenováno pamětníkem Bohuslavem Strauchem-Grizzlym
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The club of the defenders of the political walls - our totem
The club of the defenders of the political walls - our totem
photo: vyfoceno a naskenováno pamětníkem Bohuslavem Strauchem-Grizzlym
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The club of the defenders of political walls - our club house in the garden of the town breweryského pivovaru
The club of the defenders of political walls - our club house in the garden of the town breweryského pivovaru
photo: vyfoceno a naskenováno pamětníkem Bohuslavem Strauchem-Grizzlym
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The club of the defenders of the political walls - building the club house
The club of the defenders of the political walls - building the club house
