Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

were looking for me and they had my photograph from the agent. They found the suitcase
I was carrying and accused me of espionage. Together with me, they arrested Ruda’s fiancée
too because she had no ID on her. She knew nothing about what I was doing, so I wasn’t afraid
that she would discuss me. They handed us both over to the Russians.
What happened next?
At that time, Austria was divided into zones and I was arrested in the Soviet Zone. The Russians
offered me cooperation provided that I bring them plans of an American airport. They
knew that I was seeing an American soldier in his military quarters and that’s why they were
very interested in me. However, they wanted to keep Ruda’s fiancée as a hostage. I refused
because I could have never forgiven myself if I had left her there. I don’t like to recollect my
experiences from the Russian prison. The interrogations were carried out mostly at night, from
about ten to three or four a.m. They wouldn’t let me sleep during the day. When I lied down
on the bench without a mattress or blankets, a soldier who guarded the door of my cell started
to kick and bang at the door and I had to get up. Ruda’s girlfriend caught pneumonia. They
called her a doctor and he ordered warmth and more nutritious food. She got mattresses for
the bench in her cell, blankets, an electric heater, and officer’s meals. I ate almost nothing
because all they gave us was borsch and dark bread that even mice refused to eat. Then they
handed us over to České Budějovice. Agent Eichler was arrested together with seven Slovaks.
Allegedly, he was leading them across the border, but he took them straight to the Russians.
He was in the same transport to České Budějovice as me, but he requested a place in Brno and
he was transported there. He managed to run away from Brno three times. Eichler crossed the
border a couple more times and got many people into prison. He was not present at my trial,
but his court records had information against me.
How were you treated in the prison in České Budějovice?
I came there in May 1949. I was starving and I ate about two liters of tasty soup and the
same amount of spinach with dumplings brought to me by a Moravian prison guard on my
arrival. She also reunited me with the girl I had taken across the boarder. Later, when they
called us for questioning to the secret police office in Budějovice, they started to scream at us,
but I told them, “You have a reputation in Linz for treating people badly here.” The officer
in charge then gave an order that they must not touch me and note down what I say. So, the
questionings were okay, without violence. I kept telling them the same thing, I went home to
get a blessing from my parents and my case was closed down in 2 weeks. I was told that I would
get about 18 months. Then Brno asked for me, surprisingly. In Budějovice, they thought I had
some connections there, but I knew that agent Eichler worked for Brno and that it would be
much worse there than in Budějovice.
So the questionings continued in Brno?
They wanted to convict us of espionage and they wanted to know more names. I would
have to kneel on a chair, I had my shoes off and when Horák came, one of them hit me several
times on my feet with a truncheon. When my feet were swollen, I used to put a piece of cloth
on them and by the morning the pain wore off. Sometimes I felt like fainting. The one, who
was making a record of what I said, let me sit down when he saw that I was about to faint.
Then Horák came, he was one of the senior investigators, and asked, “Is she speaking? Giving
evidence? Naming people? No? Kneel, then!” I wasn’t so much afraid of the beating as I was of
them giving me an injection to make me speak. That’s why I didn’t drink water they brought
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