Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

What were you exactly charged for?
When they were giving out the sentence I don’t know how many pages the charge was. In
the end there was a suggestion for the absolute punishment. Three days before the court the
head of the senate read it to me. The next day another man came telling me he was now my
court appointed defendant. He introduced himself as Dominik Skutecký or something like that.
He told me that I should confess everything or I’ll get the death penalty.
Where did they take you after the trial?
I was transported to the central camp that was in Jáchymov called Bratrství (Brotherhood).
There they shaved our heads, changed our clothes, and got a couple of new things. There
were two blankets, a cup, a spoon, and clothes called “Halina.” We were sorted into groups,
I was sent to a place called Vršek and then they took me to Nikolaj. In two years I was taken
from Nikolaj and sent back to Rovnost (Equality). Totally I sat for eight years. I was released on
a pardon in 1960.
What were the relations like in camp? Did you have any friends there?
There were friends, when I came there were two other guys who came to see me from
Slavkov. I knew they worked at mine 11 and I helped them a couple of times because I used to
work at Slavkov as a mine inspector. They brought me sugar and tobacco and they could have
gone to prison for this.
What was it like when you used to work there as a civilian employee and all of a sudden you
were in the same position as a “mukl”?
I couldn’t do anything about it. I had to be there and I practically knew why. It was helplessness.
I could see how the civil workers who knew me, started running towards me. I just told
them, “Hey, keep back, continue in your work and don’t pay any attention to me” because
I was worried that they would keep watching me and there could be others, ruined and unhappy,
because of me. My wife lived in Jáchymov, but I never sent anyone to see her because
I couldn’t put her in danger and the person as well. Although she was under surveillance as
well, I’m sure of that. A couple of times she came when we were riding in the Russian Bus.
Do you know what that is?
No, could you be more specific?
Well for example 250 people had to stand up, always according to the number that was supposed
to go on the shift. They counted us on the square and then we had to come together
so that we would be touching each other’s hips and bodies. Then they went around us with
a steel rope, which was about 5 millimeters thick and then they locked this with a padlock and
in this way the whole package of people marched. I don’t know if you can call it marching
though, we were actually jiggling, walking to the shaft because shaft Eduard was 800-900 meters
away from camp Nikolaj. We had to walk on the main road where there was no corridor or
main fence. It took us sometimes even an hour before we jiggled there like this.
What were the conditions like in Camp Nikolaj?
Camp Nikolaj was known as one of the worst camps. There was a main Commander Šambergr.
There was also a commando, which was making prisoners who were sentenced by the National
Court to sign the Socialist Commitment 10 . The prisoners were not called “political prisoners,”
10 Within socialist commitments people promised for example to work extra hours or also on Sundays and national holidays.
They then got various privileges, e.g. to write more letters home, to get more parcels. It was also promised they
would be released earlier.
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