Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

Did you confess to anything in Olomouc?
No, they didn’t even document it there. It was just a beating session.
Do you remember any names of people who beat you there?
Yes, I remember a name from Olomouc. He was a member of the state police, named Housírek,
he was one of the men in charge there.
I know that it’s not easy to remember this, but could you describe in detail what they did to
you during the interrogation?
During the interrogation they were spinning me around. That means that they punched
me anywhere so that I would move away, but closer to another person. Then they were also
beating me with truncheons. Notice one thing, the majority of “mukls” 9 are deaf in the left
ear. Why, because they were always hit by the truncheon on the left ear because most of the
policemen were right-handed. Notice that.
Who was the person who was making a case against you?
In Ruzyně it was Pixa. Then my trial was held July 1949, when they locked up Horáková 10 they
were dragging me out of my cell at midnight. She was supposed to say that we had ridden
the trams together once and she was giving me warnings that people kept talking about me
because I was the one who kept helping people across the border.
What is true? Did you know Mrs. Horáková?
Of course I did, she was a member of congress, but that meant nothing. I would still be in
prison, even if she did know something on me. She probably knew something on me from
Zemínová. This lady had her leg broken and she was learning to walk again afterwards. There
was man named Kočí with whom I was preparing her escape.
I don’t know whether that was his real name.
Where was the file or case that they had built up against you?
In Ruzyně.
When did the trial start?
The trial was on February 22 and 24 in Prague. The head judge was Dr. Rudý 11 and as a counsel
for the prosecution, Dr. Brožová 12 . Dr. Rudý was trying really hard to get me in prison. We
started a quarrel a couple of times and with Mrs. Brožová as well. I had my defense lawyer and
he was a really nice man. He informed me that Jiříkovský was dead. So I could speak about
everything. So we all were arguing and according to the fact that I was resisting them the
court was postponed until the 24th. So I was sentenced two days later, but that didn’t really
matter.
Were you alone in court?
Yes, alone, it was an individual court.
9 “Mukl” – someone who was in prison, the word “mukl” itself comes from the abbreviation of – “a man on death row”
(in Czech: muž určený k likvidaci). It was a label given to political prisoners imprisoned by communist or Nazi regimes that
were not supposed to be released and were supposed to die in prisons or concentration camps. Later on, this label started
to be used for all political prisoners.
10 JUDr. Milada Horáková was a Czech politician, executed during the communist political processes in the fifties, for putative
conspiracy and high treason.
11 JUDr. Vojtěch Rudý participated on many sentences during the political court processes, including the process with
Milada Horáková.
12 Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, the ex-communist counsel for the prosecution is known especially from the process with
executed politician Milada Horáková. In 2008 she was sentenced for an 8-year imprisonment. At the time of this book
being written is not clear yet, whether she will start the sentence.
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