Vlastimil Nedoma

* 1927

  • “The cadre officers called me to come for an interview in their office. At first, they were dragging their feet, asking how I felt at work, how I lived etc. and suddenly they said: ’Comrade, we got to know that you were going to get married.’ I said: ’Well, that is a correct piece of information.’ - But what is worse is that you are going to marry a kulak´s daughter.’ I said: ’Yes, but the kulak has been dead for four years.’ - ’Yes, but what are you implying?’ - ’Well, I say that the kulak has been dead for four years.’ - ’And what do you know about the term class origin? Don´t you know anything about it?’ I said: ’I know it, of course I know about everything but I don´t understand what my wedding has to do with it.’ And they said: ’Well, we recommend you to consider it, to consider it well because you need to realize that you work for a central authority.’ - ’I know all of it but I have to tell you that the wedding is going to be held on the 27th of August 1955.’ And they [said]: We take it into account but we recommend you again to consider it!’ And I got out of their office, said a foul word and said: ’Enough is enough!’”

  • “It was the second day, debates were held and my turn was really just half an hour of an hour before the end. And so I made a speech. I prepared a discussion contribution and so on, I said it the way I discussed it in Forest Enterprises: ’We demand withdrawal of the troops. We sent despatches to central authorities.’ And that was it. Back then, the Ministry of Forestry already existed and minister Hruzík walked by me and said: ’Nedoma, don´t you think that I will advocate for you.’”

  • “A train loaded with various material - sheet metal, wood and I do not know what other products was standing on the Litovel - Mladeč railway just before the Russians arrived and the Germans overturned the wagons to their sides. The Germans then left and when the citizens saw the situation, the things that were in the wagons, they crowded there and started looting. They were pulling everything away from the wagons. Then suddenly a Soviet Rata flew there and started to shoot with the machine gun. Fortunately, it did not shoot at people but if the people had been hit there would have been many deaths. He turned it and flew again and started to shoot with the machine gun again. Well, it is such an experience. And I don´t know what sense it made.”

  • “Director [Oldřich] Pacák, a precious man with whom we had a lot of in common, told me: ’Vlastimil, I need to tell you that I had a call from the state planning office today and that they only accepted applications from the members of the party.’ Well it was a shock for me, I already counted on it. So, I started to talk with the director and asked him to tell me his opinion on it, on how to act, whether to yield and to file the application. And back then he suggested to me : ’Vlastimil, nobody can get into your head. You have a future in front of you and the future already shows the way it is going to be. I would recommend you to sign it to them.’ And I hesitated. It truly was a vital decision. So, to make it short I signed the application for the Czechoslovak Communist Party.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Olomouc, 20.06.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 02:07:43
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
  • 2

    Olomouc, 23.06.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 01:39:53
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

If only the next generations finally lived in peace!

Vlastimil Nedoma -ID photography from 1949
Vlastimil Nedoma -ID photography from 1949
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Vlastimil Nedoma was born on the 16th of April 1927 in Chudobín in the area of Litovel. He studied at elementary school in his native village where his own father Tomáš Nedoma also taught him. He was studying at grammar school in Litovel during the time of German occupation of the rest of the Czech territory in 1939. They listened to forbidden London radio broadcast at home during the war, he also remembers the atmosphere of fear during the reprisal of Heydrich´s death (so called ’heydrichiáda’) and air raids of Soviet fighter planes in May 1945. He started to study at forestry school in Hranice in September 1945. Having successfully passed his secondary school leaving exam in 1949, Vlastimil Nedoma got an opportunity to take a one-year planning course. The condition was to join the Czechoslovak Communist Party and at the end he - in spite of his inner conflict - agreed to do it. He met his future wife Eva Novotná during his following work for the Ministry of Forestry and Water Management in Prague. They moved back to Chudobín after the wedding in 1955 and Vlastimil Nedoma accepted a job position in Forest Enterprises in Litovel where he worked until his retirement in 1987. He took part in Congress of the Workers‘ Union of Wood Industry, Forestry and Water Management in Prague where he publicly protested against the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops. He then left the Communist Party in reaction to removal of Alexandr Dubček in Spring 1969. He took part in demonstrations in Litovel in November 1989. The whole witness´s life has been inseparably connected with music. He has been playing the violin since he was five, he started a singing choir Kantika Livovel in 1968 and he was its leader for the following 35 years. In Litovel, he also co-founded Kruh přátel hudby (Group of music friends), choir Koledníci (Carollers) and he also taught to play instruments. Both his children are professional musicians, daughter Eva Nedomová (* 1958) performs in Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, son Jan Nedoma (* 1956) performs in Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra in Zlín. Vlastimil Nedoma was living in native Chudobín during the time of the interview shooting (2020).