Jiří Wohanka

* 1946

  • “We left the theatre and we were walking towards the square filled with people right form the post office. All the streets around were also filled with people. And I was walking with Havel, there were some other people around us, and I was talking with him and I said: 'Could you please let us through? We need to get to the square.' – 'Well you can just... – See, what do you think we are trying to... – Look, that's the guy, Havel! Come on, let him through. And the crowd began to part to let us pass. - Let him pass, that's Havel! And they started patting us on our backs, and in the end it was just fantastic. We managed to get up to the balcony. And the whole leadership had been left standing in the street bellow, as he ignored them completely. There was just John Bok on the balcony, who served as his personal advisor, I was there, and also some people representing the miners and the steelworkers, and then I realised that I didn't know what I was going to say. As I never knew in advance what I would be talking about. If you are honest, you heart will tell you what to say. So I had been expecting something like that, but at that time there were thirty thousand people, almost the whole city of Kladno. So I went up to the balcony and at that moment I recalled my mother, who kept saying that in three years it would be all over. So I said, let's remember all those who didn't live to see that day, like my mother. And I did quite well it seemed, as after that people were approaching me, saying: ' You moron, you just made me cry!'”

  • “I had been telling you the truth when I said it was dangerous, as it indeed had been like that, as one day, I was summoned by the Kladno police. And they told me that they got this information from Prague (Praha), from Špalíček, where the Civic Forum had its main office, that someone had been looking for me at the theatre and that some people wanted to kill me, so they were ordered to watch over me, so they were letting me know. And they were following my car and guarding me, so that no one would beat me up. And at the time, someone wrote 'Voháňka Havla' on the wall of the theatre, which made me quite proud, but unfortunately, I didn't take a photo. I still regret that.”

  • “There was this quite interesting situation, as we decided that we would go on stage – Brousek again, me and Honza Civiš, who was the dramaturg at the theatre and also an excellent singer (he had been singing at some opera house) – we would read the declaration, tell the people why we wouldn't be performing, and he would start to sing the national anthem. And as we went to the stage in that beautiful theatre in Boleslav, the whole ensemble gathered in the side gangways to show their support. We said what we wanted to say, but there were also militiamen in the audience, not just those grannies and grandpas. So it was quite an absurd situation. We read the paper, we had been explaining why we wouldn't perform and at that moment some people started yelling at us and some were applauding. That was quite absurd. And with all this yelling, Honza Civiš started to sing like in an opera – Where is my home ... Most of the people got up but the militiamen remained seated in protest. And they were yelling at us, my apologies to women and children, 'Fuck off, comedians! How dare you?!' It was just surreal. We finished singing the anthem. Before we went on stage, the ensemble decided that I would be the strike committee's spokesman. As I was living in Kladno, besides other things. So we would run away from the theatre, or maybe just... We were just leaving the theatre, telling ourselves: 'Let's get out of here fast, before the militiamen would pull themselves together, grab some guns and begin to shoot.' Well, that was quite an ugly situation.”

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    Kladno, 05.12.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 01:54:44
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Not to shit yourself, that‘s the thing!

Jiří Wohanka during his compulsory military service
Jiří Wohanka during his compulsory military service
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Jiří Wohanka was born on July 14th 1946 in Prague‘s (Praha) district of Žižkov. Two years later, part of his family left the country, but Jiří‘s parents decided not to join them and to stay in Czechoslovakia. Shortly after that, they broke up and Jiří‘s father had been imprisoned for eight years, for reasons still unknown to the witness. After graduating from gymnasium type secondary school and doing his compulsory military service, on his second attempt, Jiří was admitted to the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU) to study drama. Before that, he had been working as a lighting electrician at the Barrandov film studios. After graduating, he got an engagement at Jiří Plachý Theatre in Kladno. There he had been performing for almost twenty years and played about a hundred roles. On November 18th 1989, the theatre staff joined their colleagues across the country in the strike to protest the suppression of the student demonstration. Jiří served as a spokesman and also as the leader of the strike committee, organizing public gatherings and protests. He had also helped to organize Václav Havel‘s visit to Kladno on December 21st 1989. Shortly after the revolution he left his engagement in Kladno. He had been working at Labyrint Theater in Prague‘s district of Smíchov for some time, and in 1996, he participated on the transformation of V Dlouhé Theatre where he has been an actor to this day.