Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

prisoners, those were the Germans or German-Czechs who were sentenced for cooperation
with the Germans during WWII according to the vindictive decrees. These people were released
in 1955 and some even in 1954. There were many interesting people. Some people were
quite famous and from the upperclass. There was General Paleček, the head of our missionat
occupation administration in Germany, Doctor Jan Pospíšil who was a General Secretary for
Minister Stránský, really high quality people. There was also the son of the Social Democratic
Minister, Zdeněk Bechyně and also many great clergymen like Josef Zvěřina who was a theologian
and art historian. From him one could hear a lot of interesting things. There was also the
head of the Czech Jesuits, Mr. Pepek Cukr. That was really a class of men and there were many
others like that.
Were there any Communists there with you?
There was only one who came after the process with Slánský. His name was Vavro Hajdů, who
was from Slovakia. For some time he was our representative in the UN and he was also a civil
servant in the Ministry of State Affairs. He was quite nice and polite for that time.
Did you ever meet any civilians working there? Do you remember any of the guard’s names?
I remember the names of the main commanders, Mr. Píbil, for example, one can’t forget that
of course. There were no civilians working there at all.
Not even women, for example in the infirmary?
At the working camps, that was unacceptable. The first woman came when the prison hospital
at Jáchymov was opening in 1955. She was there as a head nurse and part of the main
staff in the surgery unit. I don’t remember the name now, but I already recalled it once because
people from UDV 10 wanted to hear my opinion about the head staff in the hospital. The second
half of my prison stay I was in the prison hospital. I never worked in another working camp after
that. For three weeks I was at Mariánská hospital, where I was as a doctor liquidating a flu
epidemic.
So after three years they transferred you to the hospital?
They took me there not because they wanted to, but because they had to. I got jaundice. At
that time there was an epidemic of jaundice and thanks to the kindness of people that worked
there I started work there. From all the mukls 11 the highest boss there was Professor Koch,
a sergeant from Bratislava and father’s friend. They served together during World War I in
a hospital in Udine, Austria. In 1920 they established an army hospital in Bratislava together
before demobilization started. So I was transferred to the hospital. One fact that also helped
was that it was already 1955 and in 1956 the grinder was shut down and the iron ore was processed
chemically. So they would have had to transfer me somewhere else no matter what.
Where was the hospital located?
The hospital was located near to the new headquarters of Jáchymov, just a little way from
“L.” From the crossroads there was a field and today there is a factory for tram buses. Then
there was camp “L,” the processing work place with the tower, and right next to that was the
10 ÚDV – Counsel for Crimes of Communism, Documentation, and Investigation. It was established in 1989 and besides
communist crimes investigation, it was also processing the history of this period. Since 2008 some of its functions were
taken over by the newly established Institute of Total Regime Studies.
11 “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.
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