Commercial presentation Updated: 2/05/2024 15:36 Issued: 2/05/2024, 15:36
Czech RAF pilot Jiří Pavel Kafka with his partner Helena Machačová at the celebration of his 100th birthday, May 2, 2024, Prague. CTK/Ríhová Michaela
Prague – Future generations should try, if possible, to avoid wars, war veteran Jiří Pavel Kafka said on the occasion of his 100th birthday. He is one of the last surviving Czech pilots of the Royal Air Force (RAF), during World War II he served in the 311th Czechoslovak Bomber Squadron. He told journalists today that he does not consider his life too adventurous or rich, he would not call himself a hero.
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Kafka was born in 1924 into a family of Jewish origin. At the age of 15, he and his brother arrived in Great Britain as part of the transports organized by Nicolas Winton. First they lived in a camp for refugee children, then they got to schools, finally Kafka went to study at Sigmund Pumpy’s company. In 1942, as an eighteen-year-old, he joined the army. He served the first months in the Czechoslovak ground unit, went through basic training and was then selected for the RAF.
“For me, it is incredible heroism when a young, eighteen-year-old boy, who is far from home without his family and does not know what will happen, does not hesitate and joins the army and wants to fight for his homeland,” said Chief of the General Staff Karel Řehka in a ceremonial speech. According to him, Kafka is a great inspiration for the soldiers of the Czech army. “We need to remind ourselves of the values and patriotism embodied in you,” he told a war veteran today. According to him, Kafka is a great patriot and a person with strong values who was not afraid to take risks and did what he thought was right.
Kafka served in the British army until the end of the war, after which he returned to Czechoslovakia, where he was reunited with his parents. His mother survived the ghetto in Łódź and the concentration camp in Auschwitz, his father survived the war in exile. Kafka went to England again in 1947 and lived there with a break in the 1960s, when he stayed in Israel, until the 1990s. After the fall of the communist regime, he returned to Prague, where he still lives today. According to him, the recipe for living to 100 years old is to pretend that age does not exist, he said today at his celebration.
Defense Minister Jana Černochová (ODS) and other representatives of the Czech army also congratulated Kafka. British Ambassador Matt Field handed him a personal wish from the British King Charles III.
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