Village Squire, 1978-04, Page 40inevitable reaction from the Soviets. All the
night before the sound of huge aircraft was
heard over the city, aircraft carrying the
men and tanks brought in to quash the
newly -won freedom of the Czechs. But the
people of Prague, while not fighting
Opening in the streets, weren't through
giving up their freedom easily. They took
down street signs and numbers or turned
direction signs around. The Russians
became completely confused as to where
they were going. Compared to the
Germans who had invaded the city 30 years
before, the Russians were terribly
disorganized, according to Jan. The
Germans knew everything about the city
when they entered it and knew just where
they wanted to go. The Russians were
poorly prepared. They were tc put Radio
Prague out of commission for instance, but
got their buildings mixed up and instead
opened fire on the Museum several blocks
away. When they finally found the right
building they didn't know how to put the
station off the air. Whereas the Germans
simply shut down the transmission, the
Russians did the only thing they knew how:
machine-gunned the control panels of the
station.
Jan and his friends had moved on by
then although they had continued
broadcasting after the Russians entered
the city. They broadcast for a while from an
old library building in a residential area
with the help of Czech soldiers who helped
them with the equipment. The Russians all
the time hunted to the source of the station
using radio direction finders. Jan and his
fellows tried to keep up the spirit of the
Czech people, tried to keep the resistence
up. It was a dangerous time, he recalls. He
told his mother not to open her door for
anyone, for fear that the Russians might
have found out the names of the people
involved in running the station. He slept by
an open window so he could be ready to
jump out and run if the infamous knock on
the door came in the middle of the night.
A friend of Jan's had escaped to West
Germany soon after the occupation and
was sending him messages asking what
was going on, hinting that the border to
West Germany would soon be closed with
the Russians building high fences and
planting mines. If he was going to leave, it
had better be soon.
Finally, Jan received a letter saying that
his aunt in Vienna was sick and about to die
leaving a large inheritance. This, plus the
prospect of the inheritance coming into the
country convinced authorities that he
should be allowed to leave to visit the aunt.
The letter was, of course, phony. Jan
jumped a train one night and the next �iay
reached freedom in Vienna.
The city was flooded with refugees.
About 100,000 people escaped to Austria
and West Germany. At first Jan, like mos
of his fellows, planned to stay in Europe t
be close to his homeland. There was always
the hope that some thing would change and
they'd be able to go home. But finally he
began to feel that he wanted to live in
peace for a change. Looking at history, he
realized that Europe was nearly always the
scene of turmoil. He looked abroad and
PG. 38. VILLAGE SQUIRE/APRIL 1978.
saw Canada's offer to accept refugees and
became one of 10,000 Czechs who came to
Canada after the Russian invasion.
Some of his friends stayed in West
Germany. Some of the intellectuals who
weren't so exposed as Jan and the others at
Radio Prague stayed behind. There as
teachers or professors they may somehow
be able to plant the seeds of freedom with a
new generation of Czechs, a people for
whom occupation has become a way of life.
The country only gained its freedom
following the first World War only to be
invaded by the Germans in 1938. There
was another short period of freedom and
democracy following the War before the
Russians maneuvred a Communist take-
over in 1948. There was brief freedom in
1968, but now the country is under the
most oppressive, restrictive rule of all the
Communist countries. Most of the known
leaders of the reform movement who
stayed behind will be behind bars, Jan
says.
He doesn't keep too many contacts with
his old homeland. He corresponded for a
short while but all you could talk about was
the weather without worrying about
getting someone in trouble.
Jan admires the people who stayed
behind. It's easy to be a dissident outside
the country in a Western nation, he says
but it's hard for the people who stayed
behind. It takes great courage there to
stand up for what you believe, he says.
Even normal conversation can be danger-
ous because you don't know who may be
listening, who may be building a dossier on
you. Recently he says, he heard on a
television show that the Czech government
bought a modern American computer, not
to increase efficiency in government or
industry; but to keep tabs on the many
people who are constantly under surveil-
lance.
After a number of odd jobs around
Canada to get started and a job in a
laboratory which was his first good job in
Canada, Jan is now happily settled in
Stratford, living with Jean and her children
in a school house northwest of the city and
running their shop and making handicrafts
of their own. He had a little experience
directing amateur theatre after he came
here but found it frustrating. A writer or a
director has to be very familiar with words,
Jan says, and although he can communi-
cate well in English today, he doesn't have
that subtle use of the language he thinks is
so important. If he does get back into
theatre it would likely be as a teacher, he
says.
No doubt 1978 will be a lot duller, for Jan
Bajer than 1968. No doubt Jan wants it that
way.
Are you receiving more than one cop} of
Village Squire?
As with all large subscription lists some
duplications can arise. If you are, please
send us the address label so that we can
cancel it.
Send to: Village Squire, RR 3, Blyth, Ont.
NOM 1H0.
STICK PINS
FAMILY RINGS
PENDANTS
A GOOD SELECTION OF
of Chains, Necklets
and Earrings
Stcrline. G.F. or Karat Gold
Seaforth
Jewellers
Main St. Seaforth
Phone 527-0270
P//,d IM/AAV Illt!'/•dlWAWY
Strickland
AUTOMOBILES
JEEP
TOYOTA
AMERICAN
MOTORS
STRICKLAND
AUTOMOBILES
Goderich
(519) 524-8841
524-8411
524-9381