May 5th is still in his memory
Stáhnout obrázek
František Močuba, born on 19 June 1931 in Prague, grew up with his parents and older sister in a small social flat built in the new Pankrác housing estate Zelená liška. Both his parents came from poor backgrounds. His father, however, worked his way up from a coal warehouse worker to a salesman and later set up his own business delivering and selling coal. As a young boy, František Močuba helped him at work during the holidays. He had a wonderful childhood in the then car-free Prague. When he was ten years old, World War II broke out.When he was ten years old, World War II broke out. He experienced the Allied air raids on Prague and witnessed the bloody fighting during the Prague Uprising at Pankrác, where the defenders of Prague, including his father, fought on the barricades. Shortly after the war, František Močuba joined Junák and later Sokol. In September 1945 he entered the last year of the municipal school, but in October 1945 his father unexpectedly decided that the whole family would move to Petrovice to the farmstead of the expelled Germans. František Močuba finished the last year of his municipal schooling at the school in Jablonné v Podještědí and from September 1946 he began to study at the Business Academy in Liberec. During his studies he was active in football, athletics, joined Sokol and in 1948 he trained in Prague and at the XI. He attended the All-Sokol meeting in Prague. In various athletic disciplines, he took top places in both individual and team competitions. At school and later in his job he held the position of sports officer and organized various sports competitions. In 1952, he entered the basic military service, where he spent only four months. For health reasons he was released to civilian life. He returned to work at Pozemní stavby, where he worked in the finance department until the company closed down after the Velvet Revolution in 1990. His first wife, who became seriously ill, had a planned surgery at the hospital in Vinohrady cancelled by doctors due to the events of August 1968. The surgery, which was postponed until November, did not help her anymore. František Močuba was left alone with his nine-year-old son. He later remarried and had a daughter. During the period of socialism he held a position in the trade union as executive director of the trade union factory committee, but he never joined the Communist Party. He retired in 1998. At the time of recording, in 2022, he was living in Liberec.
