It was only in emigration that I changed my attitude towards institutions
Stáhnout obrázek
Jan Škrabánek was born on 26 August 1950 in Gottwaldov [today´s Zlín] as the fourth child of a teacher who was expelled from the party and persecuted after a conflict with the communist apparatus. He grew up on the Pionýrů Embankment (today‘s Benešovo Embankment) in an environment strongly marked by the political atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s. After primary school he entered a military technical school in Poprad and later in Nové Mesto nad Váhom, where he received a technical education, but he perceived the military environment critically. After a prolonged illness he was discharged from military service. He worked in various blue-collar jobs, in the film studios in Kudlov in Gottwaldov as a lighting and later sound engineer. In August 1974 he was arrested together with friends after an improvised puppet show at Hostýn, which was judged to be anti-state. He was convicted of aiding and abetting a crime, his future wife Lenka was sentenced to prison, and the witness was given conditional sentence. After his release from detention, he faced losing his job and worked outside the industry, including as a driver at a bakery. In the second half of the 1970s, he joined the circle of people around Charter 77, which he signed in 1979. The family was monitored by State Security and Jan Škrabánek was symbolically demoted from reserve rank by the military. Gradually they came to the decision to emigrate. After completing the formalities, he moved with his family to Austria, where he worked as a craftsman and started a new life. After 1989, at retirement age, he returned to the Czech Republic. In his narrative, he emphasized personal freedom and respect for the law as the basic values of his life. At the time of recording in February 2025, Jan Škrabánek lived in Léskovec near Počátky.
