Ladislav Jeník

* 1959

  • “We had allocated certain times when we could go see the Pope. It was one or two days a month and sometimes if necessary he’d call us by the radio and invite us for breakfast, for instance. So either we ate breakfast together or he invited us to his private chapel which was located opposite to his bedroom, to join him for morning mass. At 6 a.m. he always held a private mass where there were twenty priests or other invitees. When he wished to talk to us or when we had something to discuss we sent a message via priest Diviš, his personal secretary and he either invited us to the morning mass or to breakfast.”

  • “I recall it as if it were today. My class teacher’s name was Mütter, a German by origin. By the beginning of the fourth grade of high school they brought in the so-called Anti-charter, and I was the only non-member of the Socialist Union of Youth in the whole school. Our class chief was walking around with it and I told him: ‘I’m not signing it.’ It circulated around the class and when the break was over, Mütter came in and asked the class chief: ‘Do you have the signatures?’ – ‘Yes I do.’ – ‘Ok, give it to me.’ It was a farce because he was leaving already and then suddenly his head appeared in the door again and he asked the chief: ‘Had Jeník signed?!’ And he replied: ‘No, Jeník hadn’t!’ Two minutes later I was at the headmaster’s office. We had a crazy Bolshevik as headmaster. His name was Levar and he died in 1977 but his replacement was all the same.”

  • “I’ve changed jobs about five times. I was walking around Ostrava and nobody wanted to hire me. Then I received a written summons to the secret police station by Cpt. Vojvodič. He told me: ‘Either you sign up here to work at a coal mine for ten years or we will charge you with social parasitism and you’ll get four years in prison.’ Or maybe he said five. I feared working at a mine and didn’t want to go for it. Eventually, I said ‘alright’ as he told me straight: ‘You see, you don’t really have a choice. We will make sure that they won’t hire you anywhere and if they did, they will fire you immediately. So either you sign up for ten years at a mine or we’ll charge you.’ The second or third day I went to the mine Rudý říjen in Ostrava Heřmanice, passing by the prison. There they had already known about me. So I went to the human resources where I received the highest of honors, becoming a member of the mining class.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    v Praze , 12.05.2016

    (audio)
    délka: 01:59:02
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memory of nations (in co-production with Czech television)
  • 2

    Praha, 23.05.2016

    (audio)
    délka: 01:33:53
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memory of nations (in co-production with Czech television)
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Once you fall into it, you can’t let go

Ladislav Jeník, 2016
Ladislav Jeník, 2016
zdroj: Eye Direct

Ladislav Jeník was born on 14 August 1959 in Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia. His mother was a kulak and his father a descendant of a Hungarian noble family. While studying high school he began collaborating with the priest Antonín Huvar in the underground church. He distributed information, printed textbooks for an underground theological university, and repaired presbyteries and churches which the regime intended to demolish. After high school he worked in a foundry in Bohumín. There he was arrested by the secret police and spent four months in pre-trial detention. He eventually received suspended sentence for preparing emigration. At the turn of 1987 he moved to Rome where he became a broadcaster at Radio Vatican and helped prepare the canonization of St. Agnes of Bohemia. After the Velvet Revolution he returned from exile and worked for the Czechoslovak People‘s Party. He was in charge of Pope‘s first visit to Czechoslovakia. He left the party in 1990 following the „Bartončík“ scandal. He then worked in the private sector, owning a company which sells medical equipment.