Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

his own army my brother decided to join it. He didn’t talk about things much, but when we
drank a bit he started to open up and that was something horrible.
What was Slovakia like after the war? Did you finish school?
After the war I went back to the Gymnasium in Levice. I got into some trouble there. One
friend of mine whose name was Palán broke his leg and since he was in hospital we wanted
to go and visit him. I didn’t want to look disrespectful so I wore a tie and my friend Stano did
as well. There were two other girls going with us. When we came to school a professor came
and pointed his finger at Standa and I, hit us, then asked why we were dressed like that. We
replied that we were going to visit our friend in the hospital, but he didn’t believe us. He
said, “It’s March 14 4 today and this used to be the Slovakian national holiday.” They chased
us to the director’s office and they called our parents to school. Finally I was suspended
from school because I had a “bad report,” and I was forbidden to study at any high school
in Czechoslovakia. I had to go to work in the heavy industry in Ostrava. That was already in
1947 when they started to chase democrats. I was in Ostrava during the February events. The
workers got shotguns and they were put around the gates and important objects around
town.
You didn’t stay long in the north of Moravia did you?
No, from there I left because after that February a friend of mine escaped across the border.
He left a suitcase at my place telling me he was going to visit an uncle in Prague to see about
a job. His uncle was a head doctor. My friend was caught trying to cross the border and was
in prison in Cheb for two weeks. From there I got a letter with his apology for not telling me
anything and for betraying me. He also promised he would explain everything after he was
released. He never came back. He was released and he escaped.
So he successfully crossed the border then?
Yes, after a month policemen came to my boarding house asking me where he was. I just told
them he was in Prague and that he left a suitcase at my place. I took the suitcase out and it
was locked. They opened it, went through it, and they took the suitcase with them and me as
well. Then I was released, but I had to sign a paper that I wouldn’t tell anyone about what happened
and what they asked me about. At that time I already noticed someone who was trying
to be really discreet, so much so that he was actually visible. So I went home to Slovakia and my
brother, who then worked at Jáchymov, was there by chance. The prisoners started to work in
Jáchymov in 1945 or 1946 already. They recruited these guys who were unmarried to be guards.
So my brother went and he told me, “Hey, come to Jáchymov. There are Russians and no one
will keep an eye on you there.” So I went. In the fall or maybe in the end of summer in 1945,
sixty Russian soldiers with one commander came to Jáchymov and they occupied some camps.
The names of the camps were Svornost (Concord), Rovnost (Equality), and Bratrství (Brotherhood).
They stayed there and they didn’t let anyone else in except for the people who were
supposed to work there. Then sometime in October they signed an agreement because it came
out that the Soviets would like to mine. So I came to Jáchymov and I really got a job from a lady
named Pusíková in lab number 1. I worked with the high quality iron ore 5 . I was measuring the
ore and I just vegetated there. I came there in June of 1948.
4 On March 14th the Slovak State was formed. This year was a national holiday from 1939 to 1945.
5 The narrator means ore that contains uranium.
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