CZECH REPUBLIC: POLITICAL PRISONERS
12 February 2013
Michal LouÄ and Tomáš BouÅ¡ka report on ‘Political Prisoners’ a Prague-based, cross-disciplinary, unsubsidized research project.
‘The primary purpose of the project is to collect, analyze and disseminate the life stories of political prisoners who survived jailing in Stalinist prisons and working camps in the former Czechoslovakia and other European countries. Most of our narrators were jailed in the 1950s and 1960s but their traumatic experiences continued after they were released from prison and inevitably affected their families. We think their life stories can enrich our view of the Czechoslovak socialist dictatorship with new perspectives.
‘Our team of volunteers is made up of students (mostly PhD candidates) from various universities and science fields including history, psychology and social anthropology. We hold historical conferences, youth workshops, and compile the Czechoslovak Political Prisoners anthology to enable these stories to cross the globe.
‘We use the website www.politicalprisoners.eu to share the authorized transcripts of interviews and multimedia resources with the public. Our offline archive is also available at the Oral History Center in Prague. We have collected thirty-five life stories so far and recently had ten of those translated into English for the website.
‘One of our current projects is K.Ch. – The story of a female political prisoner, a documentary on the story of a young woman raped, impregnated, and forced to give birth to her prison guard’s child in a former Czechoslovakian prison in 1948. She met her daughter more than fifty years later and both of them appear in the film. The film introduces Karla Charvatová, a strong and level-headed woman who was able to overcome tragedy and fight for her life under severe and unfair circumstances. The opening night of the documentary was on the 17 November 2011 at a cinema in Prague. About 250 people came to the opening night where Mrs Charvátová, director Tomáš Bouška and historian Tomáš Herajt were available for discussion. Currently we are working on producing an English subtitled version of the documentary.’
• For more information on the project please visit www.politicalprisoners.eu or contact Michal LouÄ at: michal.louc@politicalprisoners.eu
source: ORAL HISTORY, Spring 2012, p. 28
Number of Visits: 4232
The latest
- Pathology of Oral History Education in Iran
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 18
- Practical Models for Simulating Texts in Distinguished, Signature Styles, Under the Use of AI Tools in Resistance Literature
- A Recollection by Ali Tahiri of a Military maneuver
- 100 Questions/17
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 17
- Oral History News of December-January 2026
- Analyzing the Impact of Sacred Defense Memories on the New Generation: Usage in Transmitting Values
Most visited
- Oral History News of December-January 2026
- Analyzing the Impact of Sacred Defense Memories on the New Generation: Usage in Transmitting Values
- The Sha‘baniyya Uprising as Narrated by Ali Tahiri
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 17
- Practical Models for Simulating Texts in Distinguished, Signature Styles, Under the Use of AI Tools in Resistance Literature
- 100 Questions/17
- A Recollection by Ali Tahiri of a Military maneuver
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 18
100 Questions/13
We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week. The goal of this project is to open new doors to an issue and promote scientific discussions in the field of oral history.Oral History of 40 Years
One of the main hypotheses regarding the reason for the growth and expansion of oral history in the modern era relates to the fact that oral history is the best tool for addressing lesser-known topics of contemporary history. Topics that, particularly because little information is available about them, have received less attention.Omissions in the Editing of Oral History
After the completion of interview sessions, the original recordings are archived, the interviews are transcribed, proofread, and re-listened to. If the material possesses the qualities required for publication in the form of an article or a book, the editing process must begin. In general, understanding a verbatim transcription of an interview is often not straightforward and requires editing so that it may be transformed into a fluent, well-documented text that is easy to comprehend.100 Questions/8
We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week. The goal of this project is to open new doors to an issue and promote scientific discussions in the field of oral history.
