At a time when it was almost unthinkable to do so, Jan Vitek, 1928, took a stand against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia; his courageous engagement would leave an indelible mark on the rest of his life. Expelled from Prague University for demonstrating against the 1948 communist takeover, Vitek was forced into hiding, adopting a new identity as a means of avoiding arrest. Under this new persona, he joined the army, where he would meet a powerful and significant ally, Lieutenant General Václav Prchlík, a man who would become his mentor and protector. Prchlík, a fellow dissident, enables Vitek to assume a career as a journalist.
He would later earn a position in the International Labour Organization in Geneva. After Soviet invasion of his home country, Czechoslovakia, he chooses exile in Switzerland. Besides being a prolific publicist, Vitek published half a dozen books and hundreds of short stories in Czech and one novel in English, A Pebble in the Torrent (2013).
