Jan Rutter

* 1934

  • “And these self-employed people who had their houses taken away from them saw they would have to pay rent in their houses the way we had to, so they left. For example, Loukotka or Hruška told my dad: ‘Honza, what are you going to do here? You will still be the idiot whom everyone mistreats. You will do only the things they will think you are allowed to do.’”

  • “Matěj Kuděj - not only do I remember him, but he was also our family friend. We had books by him, for example, his book Sid with an inscription: ‘From Zdeněk Matěj Kuděj to both Honzas and Anča [the wife of the witness]'. He gave them to us. And why did he give them to us? Because grandpa [father] typed it for him on a typewriter and I used to get him a beer. I used to go with a blue clan with a volume of four and a half litres; I always had to bring a can and get him a beer. And moreover, he commanded whose beer was better.”

  • “And I got a slap in the face so that I knew my place. It was the State Security, if they wanted to treat you badly, they...” - “Did it happen directly during the interrogation? You got a few slaps?” - “Not a few slaps, just one! So, it was done. They told me not to come back home. I had a wallet with me, so I went to Kůže which was opened. I told them I needed to sleep there. I left in the morning and went home. So, I was crossing the bridge and people were walking against me. They already knew that there had been a house search in our house. They were looking at me in such a way... as if they did not notice me. People did not even notice you not to discredit themselves. I was looking at the house from the other side to see what was happening there. It seemed that nothing was happening, so I went there, and my parents told me they had also been released after midnight. And our worker was there with us, but they released him sooner.”

  • “The State (Security) came to our place at midnight or at one o´clock or two o´clock at night. It was at night; we were sleeping, and they almost broke the door - they were hammering on the iron door. It was the State Security, we had to step aside, and they took us away. Mr Konopka was in charge, and they took us up to the second floor [of the Regional National Committee building in Ledeč nad Sázavou]. They had bars there so that nobody could reach them. The one on duty opened us, we got there, and they put us in different rooms: my mum, dad, and me. My sister was in Prague, she was investigated in Prague.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Ledeč nad Sázavou, 29.09.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 02:21:28
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Ledeč nad Sázavou, 18.01.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:16:13
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

They immediately slapped me during the interrogation. So that I knew they could afford it

Jan Rutter in 2022
Jan Rutter in 2022
zdroj: Memory of Nations, Rostislav Šíma

Jan Rutter was born on 12 June 1934 in Ledeč nad Sázavou and grew up in a family with watchmaking and jewellery tradition. His grandfather Jan already opened there a shop which his son, the witness´s father took over after his death. He bought a house on the square and started Watch and Jewellery shop on the ground floor, but the shop came under the administration of the national enterprise after nationalisation in 1950. A series of house searches and interrogations of family members were closely related to the confiscation of Rutter´s property. The witness´s father was convinced in 1954 but avoided punishment and prison sentence. From 1949 the witness began to study to become a clockmaker in Teplice nad Metují and for the next few years, he worked together with his father in the nationalised watchmaker‘s shop in Ledeč nad Sázavou. The property which was subject to nationalization was returned to their ownership in the mid-1960s, allegedly because the house was unsustainable. Because of his low earnings as a watchmaker, he started to work for the national Water Works company. He started to work as a watchmaker after 1989 when sales premises were returned to him. He was in charge of the Watch and Jewellery shop until 2000 when he had to end his business for health reasons. The witness lived in Ledeč nad Sázavou at the time of recording (January 2023).