The Virgin Mary has protected me for all of my life
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Jaroslav Kopáček was born in 1929 in Střelské Hoštice. His family was helping Russian refugees during the war and was nearly revealed by the Gestapo. After the war, Mr. Kopáček joined the Scout and became a welder. He worked in the Strakonice armaments works where he witnessed the Communist takeover. He became active against the new regime - he kept arms at home, and together with his friends, he was distributing anti-Communist leaflets. He also tried to escape abroad. By the age of nineteen, the secret state police (StB) raided his home, found guns at his place and arrested him. According to the laws of the time, he could have been given the death penalty, but eventually, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison. He spent the first nine months of his term in the Bory prison plucking goose down. Later, he was transferred to the Jáchymov penal camp. His parents fought hard for him to be released earlier and they finally succeeded in 1955, when the mood became more relaxed after the death of Stalin and Gottwald. Jaroslav even became employed as a welder in a factory. He married and had four children who were allowed to study - rather miraculously given the regime’s hostility towards political opponents. He had been carrying Scout magazines and the Solidarność magazine across the border from Poland. He is a member of the Confederation of political prisoners and he’s still active in the Scout.
