THE MYSTERY OF 1939

The background to my story begins when Ladislav Znojemsky, a professor of history at Gymnasium in Duchcov, a little Czech town in the former Sudetenland, was transferred to Gymnasium in Kutna Hora.

It was time when German tanks has moved into Czechoslovakia, and life in this small democratic country located in central Europe was changed forever. The German occupation was eventually replaced by invaders from the USSR. This Russian occupation was to last over 40 years. It was 1989 when democracy finally returned to Czechoslovakia.

Although dark clouds of tyranny were to hang over this small country for decades, its democratic spirit and values were not extinguished. When liberty returned, and liberty was the rock upon which the Czech Republic was re-instituted, cherished human life values and rights returned with it.

There, of course has been a courageous few in Czechoslovakia who had continued to hold the torch of liberty, and the ideals of Czechoslovakia's firs president Tomas Garigue Masaryk, in the dark times of the occupation. Amongst this group of patriots was Professor Ladislav Znojemsky. Professor Znojemsky's life demonstrates how the spirit of one man can change the lives of others - both alive in his own times and generations of those who follow.

My father was one of Professor's students. The professor cultivated my father's love of arts and history. As a consequence of their friendship, I eventually had the opportunity to study under this eminent man myself. Not at school as my father, but at home where the professor then old man, would visit us nearly everyday.

My mother looked after him, she cooked and clean for him and in return, the professor supervised my education and stimulated my curiosity with stories of ancient cultures, philosophy and art. He passed on the values of Western Civilization and the Czech people to me.

Having listening his words of wisdom, helped me deal with the competing ideas and values that all young adults growing up under the oppressive ideology of the USSR were force to imbibe to survive.

The good professor offered me a chance to become familiar with the ideas behind humanism. This exposure to a new and different way of seeing the world, and our time in it, a way not sanctioned by our occupiers, did make my life difficult in times. At school I learned to be slavishly obedient, while at home I was encouraged to shake off the shackles of tyranny. It was a form of mental schizophrenia. Professor Znojemsky helped me to make sense of this conflicted mentality, and to understand that it was only temporary.

I wrote and delivered the following epistolary eulogy at his funeral 28.12.1993 in front of 600 of his former students.

"Dear professor,

I will not be able to talk to you again. I have been looking forward to seeing you again and asking you to help me to sort things out in my head and answer questions like what is my life all about? I have been hoping you will offer me some wisdom from 3 cups you used to give me HOPE, SELF-CONFIDENCE and REASSURANCE.

Thank you for allowing me to enter your club of lucky people for whom you have been a role model. You have been kind of a teacher everybody surely desires.

You were always a patient listener, an able to adviser when I come to you for help. You were my soul's physician and my confessor. You helped me to discover the strength of will to endure and to act with directness. Your words become my code - the lens of my perception and the basis for my action in the world.

Words like anger, hate, enemy, never been part of your dictionary. Neither part of mine - thanks to you.

You gave me a book called Heart on my 12th birthday. I do not remember the story anymore, but I know it was about friendship, strong friendship which was not torn apart by absence or distance.

Mr. Professor, you will always stay in my heart - a man of inner beauty - who must expressed itself through the lives of your students. Now you are with us as a light, a lighthouse guiding us through the hard world of competition.

I am going to miss sitting with you and to talk over a cup of tea and strudel, playing chess, discussing English history, the Balkans, the causes of war, human cruelty, and other life lessons. I also remember how reluctant you were to ask for second helping of the strudel you loved so much and how I had to urge you to accept a second helping.

What a shame you did not teach me at school.

Thank you for introducing me to the principles that govern the good life.

Thank you for your demonstration of moral courage.

Thank you for helping those of us you touched to see the beautiful possibility of a better world.

Thank you for your enduring friendship that never flickered or faded.

You remain our mentor, and we remain your grateful students now and always."

This quiet humble man, this professor of life, gently influenced the spirit of his students. Unfortunately, I only come to realize the full extend of his greatness after he passed away. Although I was not fully aware of his influence on my thinking at the time, I see now and understand how much of a powerful impact he had on my thoughts and many of y most important decisions. He inspired in me a desire to teach, and...