Bořivoj Grepl

* 1926

  • “The brother, who came just before the end of war, Vincenc was his name, he said, come on, lets go to the forest. And we took a little path amongst the houses, as the German soldiers were already running away. And there was a little garden there full of soldiers. We were walking amonst the fences and the owner came out and brother told asked her to chase them out, as the war was over. And we continued walking. We stayed for several hours. As we were returning, Lída was running to meet us crying, please hid away somewhere. As there was a certain Czech there and he understood what my bro said. And they were waiting for us to return. So we took a path through the corn and got to the village at the other end. They asked her, if we were from the village and she said we were not. She said she didn’t know us and saved us that way. They´d just line us up to the wall as that was what they did, when someone dared speaking… And even in Buková they caught a man carrying a pistol… So they shot dead him on spot.”

  • “We were supposed to start civil life and were just at the shooting range when they arrived. Pulled out a list of paper and read our names. We got on a train and off we went; without knowing where to. Only when we arrived to Přerov, there we learnt we were going to Ostrava mine. So we did three or four months more in St. Barbora, it was called the Mine of the 1st of May back then. We were on strike in our dorms. We were just lying in our beds wearing shoes. When an officer came to the room no one stood up to salute. And the whole result was that the ministry of defence Lomský gave out an order that we had a state of emergency. And it was all settled.”

  • “And suddenly the doors went open and three men with dark glasses, came into the class. The music school director, the local inspector and the regional director. They began asking me various questions and amongst others they stated this one: ‚And comrade, how is the socialistic education part of your study plan?‘ I looked at him and said: ‚Comrade inspector, there is another way to understand. I am a teacher, but a pupil comes back home and does not practise. And he comes back and I begin the training back again. You actually think that I got any time left to talk about pioneering issues? Well we got the Pioneer, there are other organizations paid to do so, to teach pupils about socialism.‘ Oh well I got it all terribly wrong. There was the ending concert at the back room of the music school. So I came in there, but I saw that some would prefer me not to sit next to them, quite obviously. Now the main theatre was on display. And they talked about it at the main event of the school year. So what do you say about your teacher talking about having little time to educate about socialism… So I got simply sacked and it was all over.”

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    Břeclav, 14.06.2016

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Even if we face persecution again, we will never change our beliefs.

Bořivoj Grepl
Bořivoj Grepl
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Bořivoj Alois Josef Grepl was born on the 9th of October, 1926 in Hrochov near Prostějov as the tenth child in a tailor‘s family. During World War II, three of his brothers were taken to the Reich, while Grepl was able to stay at home. After the war, he left to Brno to study organ playing and obtained a pedagogic education there too. After graduation, he then immediately went to serve his obligatory military service. Just as he was about to go home, the former ministry of defence announced a state of emergency, and Bořivoj Grepl along with three hundred other soldiers had to go dig coal in the Ostrava mines. In 1956, he started acting as an organ player in Břeclav, where he also met his future wife. From the beginning, the family was under growing pressure due to their undisguised religious faith. The witness was promised a job of a pedagogue at a local music school, but this position did not work out. He was then repeatedly fired from many other teaching jobs. Before 1968, Bořivoj Grepl managed to get a proper working contract at a music school. Yet, in the 1970s, he had to face pressure about the religious education of his children and in 1975 he was fired from the music school. According to the school, Grepl’s firing was justified by his succumbing to religion and refusing a scientific perspective of the world. Until the Velvet Revolution, he could only take manual working jobs, but afterward, he was politically rehabilitated. He raised four children together with his wife and now has seventeen grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.