John Schwarz

* 1950

  • "It was clear what had happened when the sun came out in the morning because there were tanks everywhere in the streets. On every corner, on every main street they had tanks and 'personnel carriers', trucks with soldiers. They were from Hungary, from East Germany, from Poland, from Russia. There were mostly Russians around us. When we talked to them, they didn't know where they were. They said they were in West Germany and were really surprised that we were Czechs. Interestingly, they arrived without any food or water. They just had a tank and that was it. So we gave them water to drink because it was so hot. All in all, they behaved well. If I remember well, on the corner of Italská and Vinohradská Street, it used to be Stalin Street then, there was a pub and there was a tank in front of the pub. Someone set it on fire. Somebody made a hole in the big diesel tanks, and somehow they managed to set it on fire. The tank and the ammunition in it burned up and everything exploded. Even a piece of the house [broke off] as the tank was standing next to it. That was the only moment when it really looked like people were going to be killed, because the soldiers jumped out, they had machine guns, and they were frightened that people were going to beat them to death. They started shooting. But not at people. They were shooting over their heads. It was such a surreal moment when we realized that our dreams of freedom had been crushed."

  • „My advice is, above all, stay flexible. Because the change that we live with today is accelerating so quickly that nobody can predict what tomorrow will bring. We can not even predict what skills we need to have to survive tomorrow. What we do know is that you will have to change your skill set probably five or six times during your normal working lifetime. And so the essential quality is to stay flexible and be willing to learn. Because if you don’t, you will become useless. And it’s not clear that society will have room for useless people. So stay flexible.“

  • "Between 21 and 30 August we had to go to Český Krumlov because my sister was staying with our grandma who lived there. It was also a trip. We had a car, my dad was driving and we were going down there to say goodbye to my grandma. We thought I might not see her again, and we went there also to pick up my sister who needed to go back to Prague. We got into military traffic, into a convoy of tanks that were going to České Budějovice or wherever. That was pretty ugly, because they encircled us and made fun of us. The tank behind us suddenly accelerated and started pushing on my dad, while the one in front of us slowed down. They had radio transmitters, so they could agree. I think my dad was pretty nervous at the time, but nothing happened. We got out of it, arrived in Krumlov and went back without an accident, and I said goodbye to my grandma and aunt."

  • "We used to send photos by post, back and forth in letters. I came to Prague once after the change of government in 1991 or '92. In the meanwhile, after I left Canada and before I came to Prague, the visa requirements changed. I didn't have a visa for Czechoslovakia, I had a Canadian passport. I didn't need a visa before, but I came to Prague, and, 'You need a visa, Mr. Schwarz, you can't enter.' So I negotiated with the Border Guard officer to let me in, and he said, 'The only way to get in is to go to the police and arrange it with them.' So I went to the police. They had an office there [at Ruzyně Airport], and I talked to the guy behind the desk, and he asked, 'Where were you born?' I said, 'In Prague.' He said, 'And where was the last place you lived here?' I gave him our address, which had been in Mánes Street. He went to the back room, came back and had a file of papers three centimetres thick. There were copies of all the photos we had ever sent by post. They knew everything about us. And this was after the change of government, under the democratic system. But they didn´t let me enter, anyway. He told me, 'I am obliged to let you in because you're Czech and you were born here, but when you want to go back to Canada, the only way you will be able to get out of here is to get a Czech passport. And that will take a month...'"

  • "She was so nice. She was fun from morning till night. She read everything, knew everything, spoke six or seven languages and she was kind of a fighter against normal life. Anything that was normal for most people, she didn't like it - she would always throw it out the window and lived her own life. When we visited her in [Český] Krumlov, we walked the surrounding countryside up and down. We used to walk twenty kilometres there and twenty kilometres back, even though we were young kids. She didn't care: 'Don't be a wimp, let's go!'"

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Praha, 03.06.2021

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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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    Praha, 01.07.2021

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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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Antonov aircrafts kept coming in all night, it was clear we weren‘t going to make it

John Schwarz – 1965, close up from the class 8.B photo, Primary School Na Smetance
John Schwarz – 1965, close up from the class 8.B photo, Primary School Na Smetance
zdroj: Witness´s archive

John (Jan) Schwarz was born on 24 September 1950 in Prague. He grew up in Smíchov and later in Vinohrady. His family was affected by the crimes of World War II, which took freedom and lives of many relatives and turned John‘s father‘s scholarship in England into many years of service in the RAF. John‘s aunt, Anna Magdalena Schwarz, was imprisoned by the communists for seven years after the war. On 21 August 1968 John witnessed the invasion of the occupation forces led by the Soviet Army. As a result of this experience he decided to go into exile. He made his way to the UK via Germany where he was reunited with his parents and sister. The family was granted political asylum in Canada and began a new life in Winnipeg. John studied computer science at the University of Manitoba. After graduating, he got married and he and his Canadian wife Donna moved to Toronto, where they lived for twenty years (with two years break) while John worked at IBM. From 2000, he ran several companies, even founded one at the age of 60, and is currently (2021) involved in the successful Czech company Avast as Chairman of the Board. He returns to the Czech Republic regularly and he has many ideas in mind about further projects he could carry out in the professional field. He has two adult sons and he was living in Florida with his wife at the time of the interview in 2021.