As soon as I trained as a tailor, the Communists came to power and the craft was over
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Jaroslav Škarvan was born on August 20, 1932, in a Prague maternity hospital, but he lived with his parents in Neveklov, Central Bohemia, where he lives to this day. Father Jaroslav ran a tailor’s shop here, his mother Marie took care of the household, which also included a piece of field, a meadow and small livestock. The Škarvans were among several Czech families who were not evicted from Neveklov in 1943 due to the establishment of a Waffen-SS training area. Jaroslav’s father was employed as a tailor by the Germans in Neveklov to work in a uniform administration, and Jaroslav, whose school was cancelled in Neveklov, had to go to a school six kilometres away in the village of Tisem. That was also the reason why his mother sent him to his aunt in Modřany near Prague in 1944, where he was closer to school. He also experienced the Prague Uprising and the end of the war in Modřany. After returning to Neveklov, Soviet soldiers lived in their homes. Jaroslav describes how they robbed and threatened to shoot their mother. In 1947 he finished middle school in Neveklov, then went to Prague to study to be a tailor. In 1948, his mother died after a long illness, and he returned to Neveklov, where he completed his apprenticeship at his father’s workshop. He wanted to sew and continue working in the clothing industry, but his plans were destroyed by the communist coup and the subsequent liquidation of the trade license. Jaroslav had no choice but to join Jawa as a grinder, where he worked until his retirement. In 1961 he married and started a family. In 1968 he witnessed the Soviet occupation in Neveklov.
