Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

the gatekeeper told me, “Come in.” So I went in and when I was in someone put their fingers
into my back saying, “In the name of the Czechoslovakian Republic keep your arms at your
side and you are arrested.” Then they dragged me outside and in front of the gate there was
a Tatra police car with policemen standing next to it. The whole convoy of cars started moving
and they took me down to Jáchymov to a place called Lužice, which was a spa house. There
they put me into a cell, which already had four people. There was something like a bed made
from wooden boards and on that was straw and a blanket. There we vegetated. There were
two East Germans from Johajurgenstadt and two Czech boys, I was the fifth. There I stayed for
twenty-one days. They took my pictures from both the front and side and they started investigating
and interrogating. They knew about my friend, I couldn’t deny that. I said, “He was
here once on the day of miners. He came to see me from Ostrava and over there he worked in
a mine of Ludvík Svoboda. He showed me his ID and ever since I haven’t seen him.” Imagine he
said the same thing! We didn’t see each other to make this deal. Then they took me to Klatovy
to the investigation department that they called Jestřáb (falcoln). This was Jáchymov’s counter
espionage unit. Here they were taking all people who either tried to escape or were planning
an escape and all these people were transported here and investigated.
When I was locked up I was 92 kilograms (200 pounds) and I knew that because the week
before I was at a check-up. Three months later I was 61 kilograms (135 pounds), what a diet!
What were the conditions like in Klatovy?
In the morning and at noon we would get a small piece of bread, maybe 12 decagrams and
a little bit of black coffee, which we called mud. For lunch we got soup in a small enamel cup.
Mine was numbered 49 sometimes 47. You know, in prison you try not to go crazy and you
need to work and you need your mind to work somehow so for example I would count the
knots in the wooden boards and I tried to remember how many did the third or fifth board
have. I always counted 19 ½ to 20 spoons of soup. That was lunch and sometimes for supper we
would have the mud again. Only on Fridays would we get three small tiny potatoes in a peel
and coffee.
What was the hygiene like in Klatovy?
Hygiene… there wasn’t a comb and there wasn’t a toothbrush. There was a rag for washing
the floor, 30x30cm (14x14 inches). Using this we washed ourselves and then we washed the
floor. In Klatovy they gave us a bucket with water, which was also used for the floor afterwards.
Plus they would give us the cloth for the floor, so first we would wash ourselves, then pour the
water out and wipe off the floor. That was what the hygiene consisted of over there.
Did you stay in Klatovy the whole time?
Later they took me to Nitra for the confrontation to meet my compliant. They handcuffed
me and took me there and put me into a dark cell and then they took me to the officer. That
was a sharp man. I refused to eat because I was in “the dark.” I was telling myself, “I am in the
dark and I don’t know why?” So the officer called me out and he asked me why didn’t I want
to eat? I just replied, “Because I am here, I am in the dark, and nothing is happening to me.”
He sent me back, but not into the dark anymore. They put me into the cell next to the old one.
There were two prisoners, Doctor Homola and an accountant from the cooperative. After five
weeks they transported me to my confrontation with my compliant who was in Nitra. One
guard who was trying to be diligent took him to my cell. We were together for the whole night
so we were able to explain things to each other.
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