Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

were sanctioned. Plus there were injuries, Edulka for example, cut her finger because of how
nervous she was.
Can you, please, explain to me how you spent your free time?
We got together and chatted. On radiator pipes we boiled water for coffee and then we
talked about various things. Those were the dearest things to me. We didn’t have many books
there. How I was telling you about the missal, before I was supposed to give it back to the nun
Marta, I wanted to read it. I got deep into it and didn’t notice that a guard came in. We called
him “Headtwister.” He asked in a second, “What are you reading? Give it to me!” I was swearing
to myself for carelessness. I gave it to him, he looked into it, gave it back and said, “Leave
this to the old ones here. You are too young for this stuff.” I didn’t expect this. I finally gave it
back to the nun Marta.
Did you stay in touch with your family? How often could you send letters?
I was always writing to my mom and sister, but everything was censored. The letter couldn’t
be closed. More or less I was mainly writing that I was alive. More likely writing about nothing.
I wanted to know more from them, what was new at home. When I was in Pardubice, mom
didn’t come to visit me since she was home alone and had to take care of the cattle. She used
to visit dad in Ilava and I didn’t want her to travel so far to see me. So my sister and brotherin-law
visited.
You were released in 1963. Did conditions change any way after the big amnesty 18 ?
They put us in different cells, together with murderers and thieves, so that we could moderate
their behavior. They respected us. Some gypsies would fight together right away, but they
would never do any harm to us, since we were so good to them. They sort of liked us. It wasn’t
the worst thing for us, but we weren’t together any more to chat at night for example.
In prison you met many people you would never spend time with or even meet in your
normal life out. What were your feelings like when you were in one cell with murderers or
thieves?
I minded it. Once I even jumped. There was one murderer living with me. She was a beautiful
girl, eyes like stars. She portioned out her kid and let her husband eat it. She wanted to scare
me and knocked on my forehead once. I was terrified in that moment because I knew she was
a murderer, able to do anything, who was standing over me. She got only 12 or 13 years, which
I thought wasn’t enough for what she did. Although there were guns in my situation, I never
held one in my hands. In fact, I was always against it.
What was your release like?
They called me to the front. I didn’t go there often, just when my sister came to see me.
I didn’t want them coming too often as it was far to Pardubice from where we lived. I didn’t
have a clue what they wanted from me. Sometime before that there was a political officer 19
and he was offering to take me to any town. He wanted to show me how well people are doing
in the socialistic state, how they love each other, how well dressed they are, simply said that
18 A pardon from the President Antonín Zápotocký on May 9, 1960. It was announced on the 15th anniversary of the
end of WW2. This pardoned the sentences for seditious crime. It was the biggest amnesty from 1946 until the fall of communism
in 1989.
19 Political officer – a special person in prison, who was taking care of “political issues” – e.g. he organised various ideological
lectures for prisoners, he gave out his opinion when someone was released earlier, he checked whether the sentence
was being fulfilled – whether the prisoners worked, and spoke nicely about Communism. All in all, he was supposed
to have an ideological impact on prisoners.
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