Vladimír Myslík

* 1921  †︎ 2022

  • "When we were in Berlin, we were never afraid of anyone. We talked to the Germans completely openly, and they talked this way to us too, even though they were experienced Nazis. Nobody ever turned us in. Everybody respected us and we respected them. When we came on leave for Christmas in 1942, you will be surprised, we had Christmas leave until January 7. They gave us fourteen days! We got there in October and they gave us a leave one month later. What happened was that when I came home for Christmas, my mother said, 'Ládíček, be quiet, do not say anything to anybody. Keep your voice down, you do not know who is listening.’ And we went into the bathroom where it was more isolated and there we could say things."

  • "Most of the people who lived on the Sámova street where I lived were unemployed and I felt sorry for them. I tended to... I was not neutral, but I was not a leftist. At that time there was a march of the unemployed from the Nusle Valley to Charles Square. I went with them. On Charles Square, where the Resslova Street ends and it continues to Ječná Street, there were about ten policemen on horseback. The horses were wearing armour so that they would not be hurt. When a parade of unemployed postmen and God knows who came there, they started beating them. I felt sorry for them, and that is how I got into politics. And that was the end of it. We left, the parade broke up and that was the end of it. That is a memory, too."

  • "Back then, when it was 1938 and there was a danger of God knows what, there was a crowd of students and all kinds of people on Wenceslas Square. And they were chanting: 'Prague, Paris, Moscow – let Hitler sputter!' That was chanted all over Wenceslas Square. Then others joined us. There were about a hundred of us guys there, and some of them brought it. Prague, Paris, Moscow – let Hitler sputter!"

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 01.10.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 02:39:34
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 2

    Praha, 14.01.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 01:50:49
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 3

    Praha, 13.08.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 02:18:32
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 4

    Praha, 12.04.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 02:21:47
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia had this love for people in its program: We will hang you or you will hang yourself

Vladimír Myslík, 2019
Vladimír Myslík, 2019
zdroj: PNS

Vladimír Myslík was born on 15 July 1921 in Prague. His parents, František and Emílie, were active in an anti-Austrian resistance organisation called Maffie during the World War I. His father was the director of the Workers‘ Accident Insurance Company and died when Vladimír was twelve years old. Vladimir graduated from business school in 1940. From 1942 to 1944 he was forced to labour in Germany in the Berlin Argus company, where his knowledge of German made him work in the office. After the war, he married Jiřina Suchá and joined the UNRRA organization. It is alleged that thanks to his travels to Germany he was also visited the court of the Nuremberg Trials. In the UNRRA he met the pre-war communists Eugen Löbl and Vojtěch Schlesinger, respected and trusted them. They initiated him into the issues and entrusted him with the transport of goods in Western European ports at UNRRA. In 1947 Vladimir joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Since 1948 he worked at Centrotex as a transport officer. In 1949 both Löbl and Schlesinger were arrested and detained. Löbl was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1952 in a mock trial with Rudolf Slánský et al., and was rehabilitated in the 1960s. Schlesinger was found hanged in his cell in Pankrác four months after his arrest. He was later rehabilitated as well. The way the Communists began to behave after taking power shocked Vladimir and he had reservations about the Communist Party leadership. In 1950, in his own words, he publicly defended the director of Centrotex, Ludvík Kalina, who was arrested and convicted of alleged high treason the same year, at a workers‘ meeting. Vladimír was interrogated by the StB and threatened with 25 years in prison. Communists at Centrotex reportedly warned him that he would end up as bad as Schlesinger. He was expelled from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia because of mistrust and was to be transferred to work in Jáchymov at the request of the Centrotex communists. To avoid this, he took a job as a worker in the Kladno steelworks, where he worked until 1955. In 1954, a disciplinary hearing was held, during which he admitted his mistakes and the Communist Party returned his membership card. Between 1955 and 1966 he worked in clerical positions in several enterprises. From 1967 he was employed as a clerk in the general directorate of the Hutnictví železa. He experienced the Prague Spring with hopes for changes and trusted Dubček. He did not agree with the entry of troops, but during the vetting this did not affect his further work or his membership in the Communist Party. In the summer of 1971, the State Security (StB) began recruiting him as a candidate for cooperation. He worked as a computer specialist in the iron metallurgy industry and was in contact with representatives of English and American companies. According to the files, the StB stopped cooperating with him after he took up a new job at the general directorate of Prago-Union in November 1971 and ceased to be useful to the StB as an informant. Vladimír Myslík was then approached by the StB twice more, in 1973, when he worked at the general directorate of TST and the cooperation lasted three years, and then again in 1983, when it lasted less than a year. However, Vladimír Myslík denies that he cooperated with the StB. He had already retired in 1984. He and his wife raised a son and a daughter. He died on 19 April 2022.