Thirty Years in the French Foreign Legion - The crossroads in the life of Pavel Knihař, Commander of the Legion of Honour
Thirty Years in the French Foreign Legion - The crossroads in the life of Pavel Knihař, Commander of the Legion of Honour

Author(s): Ladislav Kudrna
Subject(s): Military history, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), History of Communism
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů
Keywords: Czecoslovakia; Foreign Legion; Pavel Knihař; Legion of Honor; communist regime;
Summary/Abstract: Pavel Knihař celebrated his 80th birthday on 9 January this year. Many a young man could be envious of his physical and mental condition. But things were exactly the opposite when he was born in Třešť in Moravia. As he says, he survived only thanks to a “miraculous elixir”. A local quack smeared cat’s lard on the newborn’s little body and cured him. Pavel Knihař spent part of his childhood in Slovakia, where his father Josef worked as an inspector of farming cooperatives, while his mother Marie (née Burdová) took care of the household and the children – two daughters and two sons. Slovak schoolmates abused little Pavel, called him a dirty Czech and bullied him. The teacher was not kind to him either. The family came back to Bohemia in early 1939. Slovakia had become autonomous by then; separatist tendencies gained momentum there, and relations between Czechs and Slovaks deteriorated sharply. Back in Bohemia, Pavel’s situation was similar. His schoolmates abused him, calling him a dirty Slovak idiot, and the teacher punished him for speaking Slovak. It was not until the family moved to Prague in the summer of 1939 that the problems ceased and he finally “became” a Czech. Thanks to excellent academic results, Pavel went to the Higher Industrial Chemical School in Prague 1 in 1946. But politics thwarted his dream of becoming a chemist. He would certainly have had a successful career in chemistry, since he had completed his second (and final) year with honours. But February 1948 changed his life forever.

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