Jiří Navrátil

Jiří Navrátil (2015)

Jiří Navrátil (* 10. September 1923 in Leipzig , † 16th January 2017 in Prague ) was Czech translator , journalist and important scouts , all three prohibitions and start-ups of Junák , the largest Czech Scout organization experienced. He participated in the resistance against the Nazi occupation of the country and took part in the Prague uprising in May 1945 . In 1949 he was sentenced to 20 years for his involvement in a failed uprising against the communist regime; he spent her as a slave laborer in uranium mining and in other prisons for political prisoners. In 1960 he was given an amnesty.

In 1992 Navrátil was elected President of the Czech Boy Scout Association, after 2000, until his death, he served as its first vice-president.

Life

Navrátil was born in Leipzig , where his father was the consul of Czechoslovakia . Since the third grade he lived with his parents in Stuttgart , where his father also worked as a consul. Navrátil attended a Waldorf school there for two years . He finished primary school in Prague. Then he studied at the grammar school in Bučovice and after his father's return from Germany in Prague .

In 1937 he joined the Boy Scout Association in Prague. He became a member of the scout tribe led by the writer Jaroslav Foglar . After the boy scout ban in 1940, the tribe continued to work illegally within the Czech Tourist Club .

In 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo along with other scout leaders - after the scout group refused to greet them with a Hitler salute when they visited the stadium and instead later sang patriotic slogans while marching through Prague. With the help of Morse code , they managed to coordinate their statements so that most of them could escape the concentration camp . Navrátil was assigned to the Todt Organization , but he fled and hid until the end of the war. In 1945 he took part in the Prague uprising .

After 1945 Navrátil studied law in Prague. After the communist seizure of power in 1948, he was banned from studying at Charles University as a scout functionary . In 1949 Navrátil took part in an anti-communist uprising with other scouts. He was supposed to maintain the connection with the scouts between individual parts of the "Military Group Praha-Žatec", which, led by General Karel Kutlvašr , was to carry out a military uprising. However, the secret police followed the preparations and arrested many boy scouts. The arrested were subjected to physical and psychological pressure during interrogation. Again with the help of Morse code and other aids, learned in the Boy Scout tribes, they succeeded in not disclosing the names of most of the Boy Scouts involved and the details of their activities. The regime organized a "Boy Scout Show Trial". Navrátil was sentenced to 20 years in prison for high treason .

The convicted boy scouts were then transferred to a uranium mining camp in Jáchymov . There they founded an (illegal) tribe that carried out extensive activities in the camp: they conveyed news and connections with the families, provided medication, organized secret lectures and fairs, language courses and even founded their own "publishing house", the first Czech samizdat issued. Navrátil developed a severe kidney infection in the camp and was transferred to other prisons. He was, among others, in the notorious prisons prison Mírov , prison Bory and prison Leopoldov held. In 1960 he was released from Leopoldov under an amnesty.

In the next few years, Jiří Navrátil worked in various auxiliary professions (swimming pool cleaner, etc.). In addition, he made a living from translations (which he had to do under cover names), later he wrote contributions for the broadcasts of the Czechoslovak Radio . In 1968 he became a member of the editorial team of a new weekly publication Doba (Epoche). After the magazine was closed, he worked as a freelance journalist and continued to translate from German, English and French.

In December 1989 he became editor-in-chief of the daily Lidová demokracie for six months . At the same time he became a member of the Central Council of Junák and in 1992 he was elected President.

Navrátil married Běla b. Válková, daughter of his fellow inmate František Válek , whom he met after his return from prison. In 1977 his son Tomáš was born.

Navrátil died in 2017 at the age of 93.

Award

In 2002 Navrátil was awarded the 292nd Bronze Wolf , the only award from the World Organization of the Scout Movement , which is bestowed on excellence by the worldwide scout movement.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jiří Navrátil (1923-2017) , article from the Paměť národa ( National Memory) Internet portal , a joint project of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes with the Czech broadcaster Český rozhlas and the Post Bellum Association , online at: www.ustrcr.cz/ ...
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Skaut Navrátil: S Foglarem jsem se rozešel ve zlém. Teď vidím, že to byla chyba , In: Online news portal Lidovky.cz , January 16, 2017, online at: [1]
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} JUDr. Jiří Navrátil (1923 - 2017) - biography , résumé (English) on the Internet portal Paměť národa (Memory of the Nation), a joint project of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes with the Czech broadcaster Český rozhlas and the Post Bellum Association , online at: pametnaroda .cz / ... 209 ( memento of January 29, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (English for short) or pametnaroda.cz/...1184 (Czech)
4. ↑ V 93 letech zemřel bývalý politický vězeň a skaut Jiří Navrátil , obituary of the ČTK / České noviny, January 16, 2017, online at: ceskenoviny.cz / ...