Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

elatives live there.” That’s what I told them in front of the entire court hall. There were many
workers from factories in the neighborhood and the hall was completely full. I felt sorry for my
father, first and foremost, but he wasn’t afraid either. We just didn’t want to play the inferior
and the humiliated. The trial was in a local public house in Malín, the same place where theater
plays used to be put on. On the stage, all the people of the village were sitting. We were supposed
to be judged by prosecutor Čížek, 11 but he renounced the job. There were twelve people
to be judged. I knew almost all of them. They were people from Malín: Holec and his son,
Havelka, Eliška Štípková, my father, me, the postman, whose name I’ve already forgotten, and
I can’t remember the rest either. I remember Holec declaring, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not
see this as a trial. This is a theater play.” The trial lasted one day and the sentences were: 10
years for me, 12 years for my father, the same for Holec, and 12 years for his son too, I think.
The sentences were severe. Eliška Štípková got the least severe sentence because she was a sister-in-law
of that informer rat Němeček and she only got one year. Němeček wasn’t put on trial
with us. If he was put on trial somewhere else, I do not know and we never saw him again after
that. He was said to get a good position and had some kind of a hotel some place.
My uncle, who introduced us to Němeček, had a trial in Kutná Hora in Tyl’s Theater. They
loaded us into vans and took us to Pankrác 12 . I sat next to my father and he told me, “Květa, I’ll
give you a slice of bread because the bread in Pankrác is terrible and you will not want to eat
it.” That was the last time I saw my father until my release from prison.
Can you remember your arrival at Pankrác?
When we arrived at Pankrác, we had to stand facing the wall and put our hands up. I was
terrified they would shoot us. When I went to the hospital for a check-up later, I fainted there.
There was a doctor or “mukl” 13 sitting next to me with a wet towel in my face and he was telling
me not to be afraid because he was a “mukl” as well. That was my first time in prison and
I had no idea what the word “mukl” meant. Then they put me in the cell with Eliška Štípková
and we went to beat the carpets for the guard officers. At that time, I was stupid enough to
give them a proper beating.
Where did they take you from Pankrác?
From Pankrác they sorted us into units or so called “commandos.” I got transported to Jilemnice
and it was a nice commando. Although it had a wet hall, it was fairly good there. I had relatives
who owned a grocery shop there. We used to take a cart and do shopping for the kitchen.
We always went with the jailor, of course. They always gave me butter, fruit and vegetables, so
we were fine. The officer had a good time too, because every week he would walk away from
the shop of my relative Mr. Tuž, with a case overflowing with fruits and vegetables. When they
found out we were relatives, they banned me from going shopping. I didn’t even thank them
for helping us so much, but I was worried because they were constantly monitoring me.
What work did you get in Jilemnice?
We spun linen and put it onto spools. We only had one shift and worked about 8 hours. Then
we went to the camp and had something to eat there. Then it was time for lights out and we
11 JUDr. Karel Čížek was a prosecutor who was famous for taking part in communist monster-processes during the 1950’s.
12 Pankrác – a prison in Prague.
13 “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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