Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

Can you remember any Communists who were in prison with you?
There was a guy named Pepík Just and he worked at one of the ministries and he was a member
of a subgroup in the process with Slánský 10 . I also met Gustav Husák 11 , he shortly went through
Jáchymov and stayed for about three days. The Slovaks wanted to lynch him, but I told them it
didn’t have any sense and there would only be trouble from it and he left quickly anyways.
How were you finally released? Originally you were sentenced for eleven years, but you
went home in 1955, how did that happen?
According to the decree of the President Zápotocký 12 in 1953 I received a written announcement
that my sentence was being lowered to five years from the original eleven 13 . My prison
mates and even the guards were advising me to ask about a probationary conditional release.
I refused to do that because if I agreed to do that I would have to cooperate with the secret
police and Communists like to do that. I radically refused to do this right on the first day.
How many times did you see your parents when you were in prison?
Well I remember for the whole amount of time there were three visits, two in camp “L” and
one in Nikolaj. There weren’t any more.
During four and half years?
Yes, during four and a half years. I theoretically was able to ask for a visit once every half
year. Every time I would ask though I would go into solitary confinement or they would make
up some disciplinary punishment. When I worked at Nikolaj for the first months it took a while
until my work efficiency went up to 100 % and prisoners under 100 % were automatically left
out from the opportunity to write letters, have visits, and so on. So visits and letters were something
like a reward for a good job. In camp “L” it happened that right before Christmas the
commander Šlachtecký would bring a whole amount of huge letters on a tray. It was snowing
and a big wind was blowing. The wind blew and all the letters started flying towards the fence
that separated the camp from the surrounding and he said, “If you want your letters go and
get them,” but there was a threat that if we did the guards would start to shoot. So this was
one of the ways of suppress the number of messages from home.
Even I had an illegal connection with home though and it was through Stěpánka Baloušková.
When I wrote a letter within two weeks, sometimes earlier my parents knew what I wrote.
They got the letter and would send an answer back. So I had pretty good information of what
was going on at home and my parents knew about me. I was a friend with the future General
Husník. We were together for two or three years at both camps. He had some experience because
during the war he was in prison as well and he knew how to get in touch with civilians.
Thanks to Stěpánka Baloušková, whose husband was a Brigadier Captain Baloušek, who Husník
knew before our prison terms, we had contact on the outside. One of the civilian employees
10 Process with Slánský – political processes launched against all sections of society, which did not miss even the main
representatives of the Communist Party. From 1950 the State secret police concentrated on “searching the enemy even
among its own.” The leading communist investigated was Secretary-General of the Communist Party Rudolf Slánský.
11 Gustav Husák (1913–1991) – Czechoslovakian Communist politician and President of The Czechoslovakian Socialistic
Republic from 1975–1989. In 1950 he was accused together with V. Clementis, L. Novomeský, and many others for so-called
bourgeois nationalism. In February 1951 he was locked up and in 1954 sentenced for life imprisonment. He was one of the
minority who did not confess any blame. That probably saved his life. In 1960 he was pardoned by President A. Novotný
and in 1963 he was fully rehabilitated. In 1969 he was a leader of the Communist party – by May 1971 he was the General
Secretary of the party. In 1975 he became a President of the Czechoslovak Socialistic republic.
12 Antonín Zápotocký was the President of Czechoslovakia at that time.
13 In May 1953 there were 15 379 prisoners released on a pardon. This pardon also referend to 4 035 prisoners from the
labor camps for uranium.
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