Jan Tichý

* 1951

  • "In that year of 69 we were going over the railroad on foot for the first train, so that we could catch the first passenger train from Liberec to Prague for May Day. I was going as a hippie to St Václav on St Václav's Square and he went to Strahov, where there were communists... And that's how we split up in Prague. I went to St Václav's Square, I had my hair over my ears, as they say used to say: "It's touching your collar, go to the barber," or: "Find a job, it's touching your collar, go to the barber." And so I went to Václav, where we were gathering, because in 68 May Day was on the Můstek, there were Czechoslovak hippies, as they used to say, back then in the period of loosening they were organized, they had white ID cards, I was going wild and later. Czechoslovak hippies, as it happens with us, immediately started to organize. People were gathering into crowds on St Václav's Square, giving Václav flowers, one guy with long black hair and a bouquet, he set the flowers there, and suddenly buses rode in, militias even then, not on the twenty-first in 69. The militias were taking up arms even then and there, riding in from the factories, talking about what some hooligans are daring to do... they set up a cordon and started to push people out. And people shouted: "Gestapo!" at them, even then, first of May 1969. A Japanese man stood beside me, he had this nice camera, I tried to get out of the way, the camera fell on the ground, he picked it all up off the ground, and so instead of me getting punished, the Japanese man suffered a loss. At least he saw, how things go around here... And so we all dispersed, I didn't get punished, I ran away, May Day was all over."

  • "We went through the forest with Jirka Karásek and another friend in September of 66, we stepped carefully in our track pants to not attract any attention. Those German kids were dressed up fancy, and we were in track pants, ragged. We got all the way to Žitava, there was a guy there who looked like an agent, that he'd call someone on us, and so we got lost, disappeared from Žitava, trekked along the Nisa; today it's a popular cycling trail all the way to the polish border, where there was a customs office. We climbed all the way to Hartava, where Jirka Karásek knew people; he talked with them in a mountain hut, I couldn't speak German. There was a smuggler there - a senior, poured us black beer, I was maybe fifteen, fourteen, the other two were older, into mustard glasses and: "Bravo, bravo!" he took great amusement from it all. And then we crossed the border. Captain Minďák was in our land and captain Stefens was in theirs, and he lived right behind the border line, there are these apartments there. We were walking to our side around lunchtime and reportedly he almost choked when he saw us through the window, but at that point we were ten meters from the barrier. When he ran out to meet us, we were already on our side. We only learned that after a time."

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    Liberec, 22.10.2021

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We were conscripted into the militias from the 1st of May 1969 already. They came from the factories to get the hooligans

Jan Tichý in the year 1969 on a photograph for his identity card, which was refused by the Hrádec division of the National Security Corps (SNB)
Jan Tichý in the year 1969 on a photograph for his identity card, which was refused by the Hrádec division of the National Security Corps (SNB)
zdroj: Jan Tichý

He was born on 27 September 1951 and has lived in Hrádek nad Nisou since 1954, in close proximity to the German and Polish borders, which were guarded by the Border Guard (Pohraniční stráž) during the time of communism. He illegally crossed the border in the year 1966, without being apprehended by the border guards. Half a year later during another illegal crossing they were arrested by the East German border guards. After elementary school, Jan Tichý started apprenticing in Liberec and let his hair grow out long. In the year 1969 he was interrogated due to his suspicious appearance by State Security (StB), only shortly before the first anniversary of the invasion by Warsaw Pact armies. After finishing his masonry apprenticeship he switched between a number of professions and as a hippie and hiker he visited forbidden concerts and parties. The witness has worked in the Liberec library since the year 1988 and later in the bookshop and antiquary Fryč. In the year 2021 he lives in Hrádek nad Nisou. The witness‘ story was able to be recorded thanks to the support of the city of Hrádek nad Nisou.