Ing. Jan David

* 1940

  • “We took the train to the main station; it worked as usual. It was possible to drive around Prague. I was taking the group of kids there, a few at a time to their homes. It happened right at that moment that the sirens were wailing and announcing that the Russian Army had declared a state of emergency and that our (politicians - trans.) had been taken to Moscow and that Prague was in a state of emergency. People in Prague were living as usual. Records were taken. We went there, as everyone knows it from the shots on the TV. Then they (the politicians – trans.) returned. I went to Hradčany to have a look. The soldiers were standing there, and the castle guards were standing there too. The Russians were nearby but they did not attack the castle. Then (they said) that Svoboda was going to return from Moscow. So we went there to whistle, to show our disagreement.”

  • “Of course, I remember it. He would come back. I even remember a time I found a jay feather in the garden and said: ´Mum, I have found a jay feather.´ It is a good sign, dad will return to us soon.´ And he really returned soon. I have liked a jay feather since that time, and I have taken it as a good sign. He then returned as a changed person. He was skinny and also did not want to speak (about it). He said he was not allowed to and that he did not want to. He seldom talked about the topic anymore. And unfortunately, neither did I. He said he was in Pankrác (prison) and that they communicated with each other. That they expected Americans would come soon, but he did not talk about his interrogations. He said that it might have been a mistake and that they were not able to classify him into a group that would suit them.”

  • “The general strike took place on the twenty-first. On Monday. It lasted an hour. So I and a few people in the factory… You could see that I knew people. In the morning I went to see two or three communists, nice people, old blue-collar workers. I said: ´Mr. Majetán, it is not a personal issue, we have nothing against you, you are decent people. But we also want to be normal, we do not want to be second-rate people here or elsewhere.´ So we went to see them like this. And he told me: ´I do not care, do whatever you like.´ I went to see the chairman of the Communist Party organization, who was a colleague, a stock provider. I worked as a technician there. We made a deal without any problems. I went to the director and told him that we did not want the militia to function there. He said, ´Sure´. The militia boys said, ´Sure,´ and they packed it up and locked it up. There was no resistance. None. We elected a Civic Forum in the factory. That is where we played it. I got a record with Marta Kubišová, Prayer for Marta."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Vsetín, 01.11.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 03:04:14
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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    Vsetín, 07.03.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 02:41:27
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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Don´t make excuses because of the time you live in, you can always make good deeds

Jan David in a graduation photo in 1958
Jan David in a graduation photo in 1958
zdroj: witness´s archive

He was born on 17 October 1940 in Prague to Heřma Davidová and Jiří David. His father took over a fruit processing and liquor factory in a nearby Mochov. The factory was nationalised on 25 February 1948 and the family moved from Prague to Klánovice. Jan´s father was imprisoned for six months in Pankrác prison at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s. Jan was not recommended for studies at secondary school and university because of cadre reasons, however, he managed to pass his secondary school leaving exam at an eleven-year school in Prague 3 and he graduated from Czech Technical University in Prague. He did his basic military service from 1959 to 1961, but it was prolonged because of the Second Berlin Crisis. As a religious person, he was from 1968 involved in preparing and constructing the first SOS village in Czechoslovakia which was in Karlovy Vary. In 1971, he got married to Božena who had worked as a foster mother in the village until their wedding. After their wedding, they moved to Krnov where they worked in fostering under the auspices of Krnov District National Committee. They acted as foster parents on their own from 1973. Together they raised nine children, including their three own children. Jan David became a manager of a home for the elderly in Myslbořice in 1990. He and his wife later moved to Vsetín where he co-founded the Diakonia of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in Vsetín.