At the end, I went to the Ministry of Health to the main human resources clerk and he said: 'Actually, neither I know why.' Everyone kept saying: 'I don't know why.' This one told me: 'Come here next week, there is a guy in the department of personal files who pulls all the strings. I'll talk to him.' And the next week, he told me: 'You can go.' And that guy who was at the heart of everything was a former friend of mine from Buštěhrad who hated me for some reason. Because he was involved in the Union of Czech Youth and this union was the enemy of scouts."
„Tak jsem nakonec šel na ministerstvo zdravotnictví k hlavnímu kádrovému úředníkovi a ten říkal: 'No tak já taky nevím proč.' Všichni říkali: 'Já nevím proč.' A tenhle říkal: 'Přijďte za týden, tam je člověk v oddělení osobních záznamů, který má všechno pod palcem. Já s ním promluvím.' A za týden mi řekl: 'Můžete jet.' A ten člověk, který to měl všechno pod palcem, byl můj bývalý kamarád z Buštěhradu, který mě z nějakých důvodů nenáviděl. Protože on byl činovníkem svazu české mládeže a tento svaz byl nepřítelem skautů.“
"Eventually, we got a permission to leave. We arrived at the airport and there, they told us: 'But two children can't [leave]'. We had everything in a suitcase, sealed. We had tickets. But the clerk said: 'No, you are not leaving, not all of you.' Another round of negotiations at various institutions and offices ensued. And a year after, when they saw that I did not run away, they said: 'So we let him [son] go.'"
„Až nakonec povolili odjezd. Přijeli jsme na letiště a tam říkali: 'Ale dvě děti nemůžou.' Takže my jsme měli všechno v kufru, zalepené. Už jsme měli jízdenky, letenky. Ale úředník řekl: 'Ne, vy neodjedete všichni.' Tak následovala další jednání na všech možných úřadech. A za rok potom, když viděli, že jsem neutekl, tak řekli: 'Tak ho [syna] pustíme.'“
"It would be unacceptable for us to stay there with those Germans. That move was not organised well enough. It was not protected in any way. When we learned that the area would fall to the Czechs or to Germans, and that our place where we lived would be incorporated to Germany, there was so-called option for moving to some Czech area and on that depended where the people moved. Because it was not a move with some rules or regulations, it was an escape, plain and clear. At the moment of the annoucement that the area would be incorporated to Germany, they had a right of stay for about twelve hours and then they had to leave everything behind. After we packed a few bits of clothing, we had to catch the last trains for Bohemia in a hurry."
He eradicated smallpox in Congo. The Communists didn’t let him see his son for a year.
Vladimír Zikmund in Congo during the smallpox eradication campaign. He is showing a jet injector to the Minister of Health of Congo (far right, wearing a fur hat).
Vladimír Zikmund, a notable epidemiologist who participated in the smallpox eradication campaign, was born on the 27th of May in 1925 in Teplice in Northern Bohemia. For most of his childhood, he lived in the nearby Lom u Mostu where he witnessed the coexistence and clashes of the Czechs and Germans. After the Munich Agreement took effect in 1938, the family had to leave Northern Bohemia quickly because it was incorporated in the German Reich. He spent the war years and some time after the war in Buštěhrad near Kladno. There, he could observe popular support of the Communist party which was gaining power at that time, even in the scout group whose member he was. In 1946, he started studying medicine at the Charles University in Prague. He kindled his interest in epidemiology and preventive medicine and he met a leading Czech epidemiologist, Karel Raska. After graduating from the medical schoool, he started to work at the District…. In Liberec. He also became a member of the World Health Organisaion, under wose guidance he was sent for a mission in Congo in 1964. Before his departure, he had to go through lengthy and complicated approval process with unsure results which was influenced by haughtiness of the Buštěhrad Communist party bigwigs [who had to approve of his departure]. When Vladimír Zikmund wanted to bring his family to Congo, at the airport, he was forced to leave one of his children behind to make sure that he would not emigrate. He spent four years in Congo, during which he managed to eradicate smallpox completely in the whole country. Later, he celebrated the same success in the last country where smallpox was endemic, in India. He is the author of the successful method of the so-called disease surveillance. Later, the World Health Organization sent him to various other countries to work in epidemiology. He quit working for WHO only in 1988 when he reached the age limit for work in WHO. Vladimír Zikmund died on 18 October 2020.
Vladimír Zikmund at a cross-country ski race organised by the Regional Instutite of National Health, representing the Regional Health Authority office in Liberec.
Vladimír Zikmund at a cross-country ski race organised by the Regional Instutite of National Health, representing the Regional Health Authority office in Liberec.
Medical school graduation of Vladimír Zikmund. From the left:, brother, Jiří Zikmund ; mother, Barbora Zikmundová; father, Jan Zikmund; brother Josef Zikmund.
Medical school graduation of Vladimír Zikmund. From the left:, brother, Jiří Zikmund ; mother, Barbora Zikmundová; father, Jan Zikmund; brother Josef Zikmund.
Vladimír Zikmund in Congo during the smallpox eradication campaign. He is showing a jet injector to the Minister of Health of Congo (far right, wearing a fur hat).
Vladimír Zikmund in Congo during the smallpox eradication campaign. He is showing a jet injector to the Minister of Health of Congo (far right, wearing a fur hat).
