Radomil Lhotka

* 1953

  • „According to the communication of the cinema director and projector operator, Comrade Lhotka, is the above mentioned supposed to go and work in the heavy industry. Regarding this, I would like to note that the Czechoslovak State Cinema needs Comrade Lhotka as the projector operator in the cinema in Zahrádka near Ledeč until the Town National Committee or the National Front does not assign a new projector operator for our cinema to the Czech State Cinema. In the case of transfer of Comrade Lhotka, we hereby request that the above named be allowed to operate the projector every Saturday and Sunday evening. I believe that in cooperation, we will provide that every section will fulfill their assigned tasks and plans. Honor to work, district administrator Kafka, Czechoslovak State Cinema.“

  • "You know, we were moving and we were scared. There were such logs in the attic - we did not dare to take them so that nobody could snitch that we had taken something away. We were paying the rent, you know. So we were afraid to take something. So we only brought here what was undisputedly ours. Everything was actually ours but we were afraid."

  • "And dad started the cinema, it was pretty popular. But then it was nationalised, dad stayed there as the projector operator because nobody else was able to do it. When dad needed to go somewhere, a projector operator frlom Ledeč had to come because in Zahrádka, nobody else could do that and they did not have cinema operator certificate either. So dad stayed in the cinema and they nationalised all our property and we had to pay rent in our own house."

  • “On the 12th of September of 1954, the district representative of the Ministry of Supply Acquisition Janák and his aide Alt negotiated supply of grain in the smallholding of farmer Vacková in Hojanovice. During the negotiation, the defendant Helena Hojdová arrived and when she found out what was going on, she joined in hte debate and then, from the hallway to the house, she pronounce towards Alt, who stood at the stairs to the house, this utterance: ‚If you didn‘t have this f...ing régime, people would give willingly. But this way, they will give nothing.‘ Said utterance was also heard by the district representative Josef Janák who stood in the yard about three metres away from the car and negotiated with Vacková. The defendant claimed during her interrogation that she does not remember what she had said because the acquisition workers negotiated with Mrs. Vacková, who is ill with high blood pressure, rheumatism and has nerve issues, for which the defendant provided needed medication, and that apart from Alt, nobody heard said utterance. The court found out via the statement of Janák that the defendant moreover added: ‚that the people would be stupid if they would give to this régime, that they would rather provide for another régime than this one.‘“

  • "Imagine, you build a house and out of sudden, there is a stranger taking over your place and you're living there, barely tolerated. They placed tenants in our house. Just all that stuff... Dad had to keep it inside and it had to be getting on his nerves and it lead to mental issues and then to apoplexy, stroke."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Zruč nad Sázavou, 11.10.2019

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    délka: 01:32:40
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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    Zruč nad Sázavou, 17.10.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 54:23
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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Exilees of the Seventees

Radomil Lhotka in 1977
Radomil Lhotka in 1977
zdroj: Rodinný archiv Radomil

Radomil Lhotka was born on the 2nd of August in 1953 in Zahrádka near Ledeč nad Sázavou. The Lhotka family owned a small enterprise consisting of a public house, cinema, hotel and a smallholding. All this was nationalised in 1959 and the family of Karel Lhota was forced to join the United Agricultural Cooperative. Even before, Radomil’s sister Helena was sentenced to three months of imprisonment for incitement to riot when she defended a sick woman she tended to against the Communist officials. Radomil Lhotka attended basic school in Zahrádka and then he studied at the secondary technical school in Havlíčkův Brod. In 1973, he was drafted to the army and he served in Kežmarok. At that time, the Lhotka family had to move away from Zahrádka as the Švihov dam was being built. They resettled in Zruč nad Sázavou. At the time being (2020), Radomil participates in the activities of the Friends of Zahrádka group and lives in Zruč nad Sázavou.