Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100Sat, 25 Jul 2026 11:00:25 +0200https://english.radio.cz/jaroslav-and-alzbeta-hofrichter-enduring-power-love-8540958© 2026 Radio Prague International In this programme two quite exceptional people tell their own story. It is a tale of courage, resilience and a touch of luck, but above all of the enduring power of love. Jaroslav and Alžběta Hofrichter have been married for well over half a century. Their friends call them the “turtledoves” and when you meet them it is not hard to see why. At 93 and 91 respectively, Jaroslav and Alžběta are still very much in love and if there is an elixir for happiness, they seem to have found it. This is remarkable in itself, but what makes their story the more exceptional is the degree of hardship they have both had to overcome. I went to see the Hofrichters at Prague’s Military Hospital, where they now live in sheltered accommodation for Czech veterans of World War Two. Jaroslav spent four years serving in Britain’s Royal Air Force along with some 2,000 fellow Czechs and Slovaks, nearly a quarter of whom never came home. He returned to Czechoslovakia as a hero, but before long his record with the RAF became a thorn in the side of the new communist regime. For most of over the next four decades he and his wife Alžběta were treated with constant suspicion. Here, in their own words, is the story of Colonel Jaroslav Hofrichter and Alžběta – or Elizabeth in English. encr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas)webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) https://english.radio.cz/sites/default/files/images/hofrichter_jaroslav_alzbeta.jpg?timestamp=1591146241 https://english.radio.cz/jaroslav-and-alzbeta-hofrichter-enduring-power-love-8540958 Radio Prague International Radio Prague International radio.prague.int@gmail.com clean 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9