Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

more copies. Sometimes we printed ten copies at once. The leaflets were then distributed in
different ways. At that time I had my part-time job and a really nice boss. He did not have
a clue about my plans and activities. He used to take us for trips, we distributed our leaflets
there and he never found out.
We also put the leaflets in peoples’ letterboxes. The net had already started closing in on us.
Then I started to work in a spa in Teplice and had a great boss again – Mr. Sova. I wrote a diary
in German stenography in those times. Yet, I could feel it with my sixth sense that the problems
were coming. I brought my diaries to work and put them in an old folder. We used to go
for lunch with spa guests in the canteen. One day my boss came in and told me not to come
back to work anymore. The secret police were already in the office, looking through my bag,
typewriter, and everything else that was accessible. Luckily they did not check the old folders.
I knew I had to do something with the diaries and could not take them back home. I had one
single colleague, his name was Emil Topinka and I asked him to save those diaries for me. He
took them and hid them for a long time. When we were nearly sentenced he dared to bring
them to my future husband’s mother, Mrs. Marie Truncová. She was scared to have those at
home, so she buried them somewhere in the shed.
Did you find them in the end?
Yes, I did, but I must tell you I am completely lost with them today. For example the names
are not written in stenography and I do not remember them or cannot even imagine most of
those people today.
How did your arrest happen?
I was arrested in my office in the Imperial Spa. The Emperor used to stay there during the
Austro-Hungarian monarchy. That day I could see a black tatraplan car coming – I was born
at 11 o’clock and arrested at the same time. They did the house search and took me to Ústí
nad Labem (Aussig). My mother experienced many more house searches after my father was
arrested. Male prison officers were not allowed to examine me, so a female one came to do it.
When I saw her I could not believe my eyes, and she felt the same, because we knew each other
by sight. She used to work for that building company where I had my part-time job. She joined
the secret police after that and then she was there to examine me. She let me keep a gold chain
and a little gold crucifix. She had to take the other things I had. I did not see my earrings, valuable
rings, or watch again. It had to go. The chain with the crucifix had to go soon as well. We
had to wear male shirts with no collars so our necks were uncovered. I took it off in my solitary
cell, but there was nowhere to put it. There was no chance. The officers always checked the
only pocket you had and your hands. I would have had to swallow it.
What did the cells in Ústí nad Labem look like?
They were little cells under the pavement with no ventilation. Only when a prison officer
opened the door, you could smell the mustiness from the corridor. Everything was underground,
you got down there by an elevator and there were prison bars everywhere. There
were only solitary cells in Ústí nad Labem, no hygiene, no showers, and no hot or cold water
in the cell. There was a so called French toilet embedded in the floor, but no water. There was
not even a jug, so you had nothing to drink. The air was dry, so dry and not fresh. The cell
was about three by three steps big and there was a big wooden bunk-bed which could not
be folded and was full of bedbugs. I wasn’t allowed to lay down on the bed during the day,
only at night. There were no blankets, you had to lie on the bed with hands next to your body
Czechoslovak Political Prisoners 87