Antonín Plachý

* 1956

  • „I spent the November 17 in Prague. I remember having a meeting in Vinohrady, and suddenly there were two students who said that there was a riot on Národní třída, that the police were attacking people, beating defenseless people. The Synod reacted immediately, as can be found in the archival materials of the Synod Council, and asked the Synod Senior Josef Hromádka to contact the Prime Minister and intervene to end the violence immediately. He was trying to connect with him somehow. Overnight a synod statement was made on these events, which we then disseminated. Students of theology also joined him. The second day after the intervention, a statement against the abuse of power was published as far as possible."

  • "Pastor Adolf Petr was an active man and bought a house in Travná, a secluded village on the border with Poland, where young people began to meet. And they were not small meetings. People from abroad also began to commute there, and surprisingly, Germans from East and West Germany met there. For example, five young Germans arrived and worked there with us on summer jobs. I started going there from about 1970. I was one of the youngest participants in the summer jobs. We met those Germans there and not only evangelicals from all over the republic went there. The activity was such that part of the people worked in the house, they tried to improve it so it would be suitable for living, and the other part did summer jobs for example in an agricultural cooperative or in the forest. They made money, which then were used for the reconstruction of the house. At that time, it was still possible like this in Javorník."

  • "I experienced the biggest break in 1968. I was 12 years old and we were with my parents on holidays at the cottage of the parish priest Veselý in Holčovice. Mom woke up and told us about the dream she had. She lay on her back in that dream, her mouth open and paratroopers were jumping into her mouth. There was a lot of fun in the family because of that. We had a great time until Dad turned on the transistor radio from which we heard about the occupation. Mom cried. People in the village started running to the store to buy food because they were afraid there would be a war and nothing to eat. The atmosphere was terrible. I realized that something terrible had happened, something I only knew from a story-telling about wartime when Germany attacked us."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Ostrava, 22.01.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 03:37:58
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
  • 2

    Ostrava, 27.01.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 48:48
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I could work with a shovel all my life, but I‘m happy that I live to see the freedom and I could do what I‘m gifted for

Antonín Plachý, 1988
Antonín Plachý, 1988
zdroj: archive of Antonín Plachy

Antonín Plachý was born on March 10, 1956 in an evangelical family in Opava. The father, a trained cook, was an active member of the Opava congregation of the Czech Brethren Evangelical Church (ČCE). He worked as a churchman, curator and lay preacher. Antonín trained to be a road engineer and worked for almost thirty years as a worker in the company Silnice Ostrava. As a young man, he participated in part time jobs and international meetings of Christian youth in Travná in the Rychlebské Mountains. He was in contact with people from Christian dissent. In the summer of 1989, he spreaded the petition A Few Sentences. After the fall of totalitarianism, he began working in social services. In Opava, he co-founded one of the first shelters for the homeless people in Czechoslovakia and became its long-term director. He co-founded the Association of Asylum Homes and was an inspector of the quality of social services. He received the award of the Committee of Good Will - Olga Havel Foundation. From a young age, he became involved in the Czech Brethren Church, for example in the advisory departments of the Synod Council.