Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

went to sleep. We were patroled by factory people. Later only 12 of us remained, but I must
say that the staff officers were really nice to us, the real political prisoners, and we had cocoa
and sweet buns. We stayed there together with the regional prisoners and we lived in the
same block, but each group had a different room. Once, when we were walking to the factory,
a bus appeared all of a sudden and one inmate jumped under the wheels. She was a murderer.
A day before she came to me and said, “Mrs. Vosátková, do you believe in life after death?
For I had a dream that my husband, whom I had killed, came for me.” After that she was just
sitting there doing nothing, lost in thoughts. The problem was I couldn’t give her any answer
really and the following morning this thing happened. There was chaos and we were asked
whether there was a doctor amongst us. Lída Krupičková was and said so and she escorted her
all the way to the hospital. Later, she told me, “Květa, I shouldn’t have gone there with her,
it was awful.” During that week I had visitors and my mom learnt that a prisoner had jumped
under a bus. My mom was upset because she was worried that they were treating us badly.
From Jilemnice I went to Minkovice and from Minkovice to Varnsdorf and then through Pankrác
to Zlín and from there directly to Želiezovce. From there I went to Pardubice in 1956 where
I stayed until my release.
From Jilemnice they transported you to Minkovice and that was perhaps a smaller commando.
What do you remember about it?
In Minkovice we abraded stones and I enjoyed that work. It was an easy job there. In Varnsdorf
we weaved nylon. That was in 1953. The directors came and chose big handsome girls for the
night shift and I was one of them. During the first night shift I was very sleepy. There were
machines as big as my house and I switched them on, all spools, sat down on a box and slept.
All of a sudden the overseer came and said, “You only had six spools on, switch on the whole
machine.” I woke up and walked sleepily to switch on all spools and went to sleep again. I did
very little work then. From Varnsdorf I got transported to Liberec. The prison van came and
I took all my things. In Liberec I got a two-year pardon. When we arrived, the overseer came
and asked us, “Girls, what’s the court you’ve been sentenced by? By the state? Do you like
tripe soup? Two pots full of thick tripe soup and a half-slice of bread for everyone, supervisor!”
We were all caught by surprise, we were starving because they didn’t give us enough food in
Varnsdorf. Then the escort came and we went off to Pankrác where I collapsed and that‘s why
they made an X-ray in the Pankrác hospital. They found out that I was catching tuberculosis,
but I had no TB, just weak lungs. From Pankrác we left by bus. We had to wear civilian clothes
so that nobody could see that they were transporting prisoners. We drove around my home
and I saw our house and tears went down my cheeks. I was saying to myself, “Mom, I wish you
could give me just a piece of bread crust.” Later, when my mother came to see me, she was telling
me about this dream she had that I came to knock on her window and ask her for a piece
of bread.
Where were you transported?
We came to Zlín, which unbelievably stank of rubber. All food stank of rubber. We worked at
the assembly line and each of us had her own task to do. I felt sick all the time and the foreman
saw me and I went to the doctor. The doctor told me to stop working at the line immediately.
I was happy that I didn’t have to be in the stench anymore. Then they closed it down and we
got transported directly to Želiezovce. When we arrived, they divided us into quarters. The following
day there was a line-up and we were assigned various jobs and I was lucky. I got a job in
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