Kudibal told me many times, after he separated from his wife, that he was planning to “escape” again from Czechoslovakia and go back to live in Melbourne, Australia. He said that if we wanted, he will take my sister and me with him and that after we were in Australia, we would write a book about our experiences in a Communist country.
My father was arrested and taken away by the secret police in the fall of 1960. We did not know why he was arrested and did not know where he was until a year later at his trial. During this time we suspected that it had something to do with Kudibal, until we found at my father’s “secret” trial that it had nothing to do with Kudibal.
When I was in town of Tabor in the army, from September 1962 to September 1964, Kudibal came to visit me a couple of times with his girlfriend, Vera Motlikova. Vera was much younger than he was – 20 years younger. She remained with him until Otto Kudibal died in 1986.
When I came back to Prague from the army, Kudibal gave me key to his studio apartment in Kourimska street in Prague. He had been given this apartment by the government, but he also kept renting a room in his original apartment building near Flora. I shared the studio apartment with his son, Roman. Roman lived with his mother, and, the same as I, used this apartment as a place to escape from our daily lives. Roman was good at drawing pictures and he created art pieces for the wall in the apartment.
We very seldom bumped into each other but when it happened, I always vacated. Only one time did I bumped into his sister, Diana, who came there with her boyfriend. I used this apartment as an escape, sometimes bringing there girlfriends or having small parties with my friends. It was a treasure to have an apartment for my use in Prague.
After the Army, I worked again at the Automation of Railroad Transportation as an electronic technician on a production assembly line. Kudibal had a high level position in an electronic company called Tesla. He found me job at Tesla as an electronic technician assisting electrical engineers developing new transmitters for the army and helped me in transferring to the new job in December 1964. It was a really a nice, cushy job. I was attending night school in Electrical Engineering at Charles University and I could study during working hours. My bosses were very understanding and accommodating in my studies. Unfortunately, this job had an unintended consequence. After my father’s death in April 1965, I was applying for a bus trip to Yugoslavia and Hungary via Austria. This trip had to be approved by the secret police, my employer, and the local board. Working in the development of army transmitters automatically disqualified anyone from going to any Western country, like Austria. So I applied for a job as a tram driver in Prague. There were three preferred industries in Czechoslovakia where your current employer had to allow you to leave for another job. One of them was a job in Transportation. I was assigned a job as a conductor on the Prague trams, which lasted until I left at the end of October 1965. Having this job removed one of the restrictions of my being able to go on a bus trip to Austria.
The only person who knew I would not return back to Czechoslovakia from the bus trip was Otto Kudibal and his girlfriend, Vera Motlikova. Kudibal advised me what to do once the bus arrived in Vienna. There were rumors spread in Czechoslovakia that the Austrian police would return you back to Czechoslovakia if you tried to get there asylum, which would result in long imprisonment in Czechoslovakia. Kudibal said that it could not be true, but to avoid any possibility of that I should go first to Great Britain Embassy and apply for emigration to Australia, before going to police. He said if I would tell the Austrian police that I had already applied for emigration, they would know that they could not cover up any possible attempt to return me back to Czechoslovakia. He told me exactly what to say in English at the embassy.
The plan was that I would emigrate to Australia, and one year later Kudibal would join me in Melbourne. My job was to learn English before he came. After that I would work for him in his real estate agency. Because of the large commissions for real estate transactions, I would work only part time and I could attend college and get a degree in engineering.
The last night before I was leaving on the bus tour, Kudibal and Vera took me to fancy restaurant near film studio Barrandov in Prague for dinner. We discussed our plan and Vera was also looking forward to them leaving for Australia. Kudibal gave me 2 collector coins. He said to sell them in case I needed money in an emergency. He also gave me the address of his cousin in the USA to write him and that his cousin would help me if needed. That was a last time I saw Otto Kudibal.
The two rare coins Kudibal gave me before the trip, I inadvertently lost when I was going to some store, still in Prague, getting some last minute items. They were in my pants pocket and I must have lose them getting something else from the pocket. I went back trying to retrace my steps, but did not find them.
After sneaking out from the bus tour in Vienna, as I planned it with Kudibal, I went to Great Britain Embassy to try to apply for emigration to Australia. They sent me to Australian Embassy in Vienna. There was a Czech speaking lady, who helped me with the application after I explained to her my situation and my plans. I also explained to the lady at the embassy Kudibal’s situation and that he will be trying to leave Czechoslovakia with his 4 children. She explained that the easiest way is to get a trip to Yugoslavia and visit the Australian embassy there. She said that his children will not have a problem getting immediately Australian passport at the embassy in Yugoslavia and will be able to leave for Australia, since they were taken to Czechoslovakia while they were not adults yet. She said that with Otto Kudibal it will be different story, since he escaped once from communist country, decided to go back on his own and now he is trying to escape again. She said that she does not think he will be allowed to do that.
After about 6 month, I got my Australian emigration papers and tickets for a charter boat trip to Australia. There were several reasons for me changing my mind and applying for emigration visa to USA, one of the reasons being that I realized that Kudibal will not leave Czechoslovakia. Later I found that he did go on a trip to Yugoslavia, went to the Australian embassy and most likely was told the same as I was, and he decided to stay in Czechoslovakia. While I was in Vienna, Kudibal asked me to buy him tie rod ends for his Opel car, he could not find in Czechoslovakia. I gladly did it. They cost me most likely more than his 2 rare coins he gave me, so I felt that this way I paid it back to him. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to talk to him and explain the whole story. I did send a letter to his cousin in the USA, but it came back as addressee unknown.
I heard that sometimes in late 1970’s or early 1980’s all his children left Czechoslovakia. Otto Kudibal died in Prague June 24, 1986. He did not live long enough to see the collapse of communism. With all the information currently available on the internet, I was searching what happened to his children. I found that Roman Kudibal died February 9, 2007 in England, Diana Kudibal died January 12, 2011 in Denmark, Janetta Kudibal died in July, 1988. According to newspaper article, she was found dead by her twin brother Marian after she overdosed on some anti-depressant pills. She had been depressed since the death of her father and her aunt. Marian Kudibal most likely died January 10, 2013 in England. I am not 100 percent sure about Marian, but found death record for Mariam (Marian Karel) Kudibal.
When I was visiting Prague in 2018, I found Vera Motlikova – Kudibalova and met with her for a few hours. She was 80 years old, looking good. She was very bitter, she did not have one good think to say about Otto Kudibal or his children. She was very resentful, that she was studying in law school and than working as a lawyer, while Kudibal was retired, sick and at home. They had no children and she was left alone. I was happy to see her and regardless of her negativity, I always remember Otto Kudibal as a good older friend, who had a great influence on my life.