Ing. Jan Vítek

* 1948

  • „Rudolf Zeman would always bring me a copy, as I had access to a copy machine in the International Students Union. And first I made ten and later fifty pieces out of a single copy as he wished. It was quite dangerous as the copy machine was in a hallway of Jakeš´office or at the head of the Union, Skála, right in front of his office. So I had to wait until they left, but once it happened that I needed to go multiply the papers and Skála was still there and not leaving. So I was quite cheeky and took an economic table and kept it on top of the whole file I was copying. And he got out and said: ‚What are you copying here?‘ ‚Well just some tables, I am bored with those.‘ And all through the talking I was scared he would not lift up the top paper and see the real stuff, Lidové noviny, underneath it...“

  • „Sometime in March 1988 Rudolf Zeman said, that they have a printer, who cannot do the job anymore and if we could print it out. Pavel Reinigr and I, a friend from Bonapart. Well and I said yes, and I got to say, I was totally happy to have a good feeling about doing some good at last. Pavel Rychetský got me the copy machine then, who worked as a lawyer for SBD Pokrok. And we got it to our house. But there were two kids there, so we had to hide it. So that they would not ask: ,What is that?‘, we put cushions on top of it in a shelf. Once a month we took it out and could print. The papers had 25 pages and the models were quarters of A3 format full of articles. They were actually cut out and stuck on hardened paper. And Jan Ruml was carrying those in a bag or a rucksack to a flat in Roztyly leaving it with a lady, whose name I´ve already forgotten, just left it there in a cupboard amongst pots. Then I already knew I can go inside, so that we didn’t meet up, and there was no relation.“

  • „I felt very strongly about it as a young sensitive person of around twenty years of age, I thought if was terrible. Because I also felt quite hopeful. I was a lot into Literární listy and such magazines that were available. And at the time anything was readable. And then the breakthrough came, when they invaded us. Well and what took me most, was how kind people were to each other after invasion and they though the same. When I waited on a tram in Braník, and it was not going, the cars passing by would stop and drivers offered people to give them a ride. And then two years later all that was gone and all those people with goose stomachs began making their carriers. And climbing the backs of those, who could not stomach it, and that made me quite disgusted and I even conceived hatred for the nation as such.“

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Myslkovice, 10.03.2016

    ()
    délka: 
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Do not bother with matters you cannot influence

contemporary photo of Jan Vitek
contemporary photo of Jan Vitek
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Jan Vítek was born on 18 August, 1948 in Prague. He grew up in Nové Město in Salmovská street and went to school in Štěpánská. His father was a wood sculptor, his mother a clerk, both roman Catholics. After school he learn electrician, then studied a secondary engineering school and then the High School of Economics in the field of information technology. From the ninth grade he rode kayak competitively. In the discipline he obtained the title of the republic master. However, with the entry of the Warsaw Pact armies in August 21, 1968, he left racing immediately. In the days of August 1968 he felt very strongly about the entire political situation. In 1986 he joined the International Students Union as an economist due to an apartment. There he copied the first prints of Lidove noviny. Since 1988 he printed Lidove noviny at home. He managed to conceal his activity before the state authorities until November 1989 and has never been interrogated. In 1989 his son was born. After the Velvet revolution he went into seclusion. Since 1992 he lives in Myslkovice near Soběslav and makes his living as a ceramist.