Josef Bajer

* 1949

  • "We became better acquainted in 1984 when Václav Havel was released from prison early for health reasons. He came to Nová Paka to Jirka Černý's listening program. Everything was good, then Jirka told me that Vašek had invited us to his home. At that time, I thought that Hrádeček would be watched, and I had a wife and three children at home. I started backing out and said we could meet in a pub in Nová Paka. Jirka said that if I didn't want to, we wouldn't go, but it would be good if we did. So I said let's go. We spent the evening there. We had dinner there, and it was the kind of evening when I already knew Václav Havel a little bit, knew him from listening to radio stations from abroad. But I have to say that Olga Havlová made an even stronger impression on me that evening."

  • "In August 1968, I was on summer break. I was doing driving lessons. I slept badly that night because I kept hearing planes, one after another, after another, in my half-sleep. So I woke up in the morning, turned on the radio, and we knew what was going on. Me and two other guys and the instructor gathered at the driving school car. We had the radio on in the car, and when the now-famous soundscape came on, with the Czechoslovak anthem playing on the radio and machine guns and cannons barking, I was behind the wheel. And I told the instructor I just couldn't go on and that we would stop."

  • "And we had nutria for dinner. But Jirka Černý was very much shocked and said that we ended up miserably. The millionaire Havel offered us nutria, but I must say that I have been successfully searching for nutria ever since. We have it at home about four or five times a year. It's a delicious meat, much better than some rabbit."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Vrchlabí, 25.02.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:32:37
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

The occupiers‘ submachine guns barked to the anthem on the radio. And driving school was over

Josef Bajer and Zdeněk Mahler, 1980s
Josef Bajer and Zdeněk Mahler, 1980s
zdroj: witness archive

Josef Bajer was born on 28 March 1949. He lived with his parents in the village of Dolní Kalná in the Trutnov region. At fifteen, he entered the horticultural school, which he successfully completed in 1969. Already during his studies, he was interested in music and culture and attended the founding meeting of the Club of Kindred Spirits at the Semafor Theatre, which was later renamed the Jonáš Club. In the mid-1970s, he moved to Prague and became socially active. He regularly hosted evenings at the club, where he invited dozens of interesting guests during his tenure. In 1974, he began working at the Dutch embassy as a gardener. In his spare time, he devoted himself to the Jonáš Club and also became friends with the publicist Jiří Černý, whom he accompanied around the country to his famous anti-discotheques. Their friendship lasted a lifetime. After the Revolution, he worked, among other things, as a gardener at Hrádeček and also at the Havel villa on Dělostřelecká Street. In 2023, he lived with his wife in the village of Ždírnice in the Trutnov region.