Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...
Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ... Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...
Ústí nad Labem to Prague, Pankrác prison by a paddy wagon which had only small windows and we got in through the back door. It was a long journey, you know, and some of us needed the toilet. It was literally peeing under the machine gun. At the end of the day we were not shy anymore so we did not mind them watching us. Before Prague we had to change from wagon to tatraplan car and they blindfolded us. In Pankrác we were put into holding where we could wear our civilian clothes. When they arrested us, I thought that it would be for a longer time, but I was an optimist and did not expect it to last for so long. Apart from the suit, which I was wearing, I took a black warm coat. I was really happy that I did, I used it as a blanket, especially in Pankrác because there were not enough of them. Did you experience any confrontation? They confronted me with one man – a priest, František Blais. The examiners shouted at me, “So you say that your mother did not know about you helping people crossing the borders!” I wanted to protect my mother, because if they had arrested her, my grandma would have stayed alone, so I had to deny everything. They told me, “You may change your mind.” I was blindfolded and did not take the cloth off my eyes, but I knew that they would beat František Blais. He took a real beating. He confirmed everything, but maybe he did not recognise me, but I recognised his voice. My mother stayed at home even though her life was quite tough, but she was there together with grandma, which made things easier. How was your trial? First, I thought that everything would be solved by the court. I imagined that I would have to swear on some crucifix, but all the crucifixes were already gone. I was such a naïve prisoner. Our trial was open to the members of our families. I could see my mother, my future husband’s parents, and wives of my accomplices. There were eleven of us on trial, but I was the only woman. The trial took place on 27th and 28th November 1951. Communists arrested their own Communists that night, the Jewish group of Slánský, Goldstücker, London, and the others. They told us the proposals on the first day, the fact they arrested that Jewish group caused lighter sentences on the next day. So our group got 15 years. I got 13, then someone else got 12, 11, 10, 7, and one got 5 years. After the trial they took us underground, I looked back at my father and the people I knew. The police officer told me off for doing that, but I said, “I will always be part of my family, whenever and wherever!” He reported me. I started the next day with my punishment. I got ten nights on a hard bed and half-portions of meals in solitary confinement in Pankrác. What was solitary confinement in Pankrác like? There was a wooden bunk-bed that looked like this: a plank and gap, plank and gap with no mattress on it and bedbugs everywhere. Every evening you had to report your name, number and so on. The officer asked me, “Do you have it with or without a lid?” First I did not know what was going on. There was that toilet embedded in the floor and I think there might have been rats. At the end the officer gave me the lid, so I covered the toilet and fell asleep. I did not finish that punishment. Two or three days before the end I was taken away and moved to Kladno. They probably needed some extra prisoners. We never knew where we were going, the sign on the bus always said “tour.” We left on December 6, 1951, on Saint Nicolas Day. What happened in Kladno? In Kladno I worked in steelworks in a smelting plant. There were cranes with some liquid alloy moving above our heads and big pots with some boiling hot stuff. It looked like hell. It stank very badly, even a slice of bread you had in your pocket got stinky. I worked with a ma- Czechoslovak Political Prisoners 89
chine where there were some long poles and I had to estimate, after it went through some other machine, whether the poles were straight or not. The civilians were not nice to us there, they were brutal, vulgar, and they spat on the ground when they saw us. The prison officers did not have to take care of us so much because the proper communist workers did their jobs for them. I got a really bad migraine in January. I felt so bad that even a police officer took pity on me and took me outside to get some fresh air. Then they changed my position. I had to dig out metal chips, using a pickaxe. I worked together with another prisoner, Mrs. Stará. We had to dig the chips out and put them in carts. When did you have your first visit? I had it in Kladno. The visits took place by a big wide table. It was all very strictly observed. My grandma came. She was a tough and brave woman and she brought me a homemade pie, but the prison officers did not want me to have it, so she said, “Eat that pie.” So I ate the whole pie in front of the officers’ eyes. She also brought some photographs from which I stole one for myself. It was a little photo from the last New Year’s party in our house. In the prison we used to wear jogging pants with an elastic band around the waist, which was very suitable for hiding things. I showed that photo to one of my friends, but I am sure she did not put me down. I only had a few friends there, but they were good ones. I think someone else must have seen it and told an officer. They came to search my cell, but I hid the photo very well, so they did not find it. Soon after that, in February 1952, they took us to Jilemnice. No accommodation was ready for us. It was only a small prison with two or three little cells. It was only made for escorts, not for staying in. Later we lived in a factory, which had already been closed down. There were bars on the windows and a kitchen in the ground floor. Every day we walked under surveillance. We worked for the Technolen company, which was about 15 minutes away from where we were staying. We spun flax there. So I was in Jilemnice from February 1952, I stayed there over Christmas, and in January 1953 they moved us to a different workplace where we worked with hemp and then they moved us to Varnsdorf. That was a labor camp where we worked only at night because the civilians did not want to do the night shifts. Most of us spoiled their sight there, because of working at night. We were in Varnsdorf when Stalin and Gottwald died. What were the prison officers’ reactions to those events? We took a different way to work and we somehow felt that the female prison officers were scared of us and did not know what was going to happen. Did you know that Stalin and Gottwald died? Of course we knew. The Czechoslovak army practised their parades and marches under our windows and they shouted the news to us. We whispered the news to each other on the way to work. For this reason they decided to concentrate all people sentenced to 10 or more years to one place and they sent us quickly to Pardubice. I arrived there on May 19, 1953. The weather was hot in those days and we were all thirsty. They told us to stand on the small yard facing the wall, the sun was shining strongly on us. The chief of the Pardubice prison came and told us that none of us would leave and we would all serve our sentence. All of us were sentenced to 10, 15, or 18 years. Could you please describe the prison in Pardubice? There were masonry buildings “A” and “B,” which were built during the reign of Marie Teresa, and a big administration building by the pavement at the edge of the prison. The 90
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- Page 42 and 43: her. When one laughed, we all laugh
- Page 44 and 45: Interview with Julie Hrušková Whe
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- Page 48 and 49: were looking for me and they had my
- Page 50 and 51: Where did they take you after the t
- Page 52 and 53: some warm water we were happy to be
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- Page 58 and 59: The children of a relative of mine,
- Page 60 and 61: Interview with Mrs. Květoslava Mor
- Page 62 and 63: Did you have to pay taxes to the Ge
- Page 64 and 65: elatives live there.” That’s wh
- Page 66 and 67: a place called “járek,” where
- Page 68 and 69: a drying house. Then we picked toma
- Page 70 and 71: What was your release like? Well, I
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- Page 74 and 75: Interview with Mrs. Drahomíra Stuc
- Page 76 and 77: there were tons of Communists. In o
- Page 78 and 79: a woman like me either. Today I mus
- Page 80 and 81: about 20 years. From Želiezovce I
- Page 82 and 83: How did the institute clothes look
- Page 84 and 85: as well. Just remember how it was d
- Page 86 and 87: Interview with Mrs. Hana Truncová
- Page 88 and 89: more copies. Sometimes we printed t
- Page 92 and 93: prison looks totally different toda
- Page 94 and 95: any names, possibly the first names
- Page 96 and 97: How was it when you returned home?
- Page 98 and 99: Interview with Mr. Augustin Bubník
- Page 100 and 101: What are your memories and what com
- Page 102 and 103: Out of six, was there any who didn
- Page 104 and 105: do with that case could not be pres
- Page 106 and 107: How did it look like over there? Th
- Page 108 and 109: eyes when I heard what people from
- Page 110 and 111: cape. I was even considered a “ru
- Page 112 and 113: Mr. Bubník, thank you very much fo
- Page 114 and 115: Interview with Mr. Zdeněk Kovaří
- Page 116 and 117: On September 29, 1950 I came home f
- Page 118 and 119: days after my trial I was already a
- Page 120 and 121: went through grinder number two. Th
- Page 122 and 123: Can you remember any Communists who
- Page 124 and 125: scouts’ ideology for which we wer
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- Page 128 and 129: Interview with Mr. Jozef Kycka Firs
- Page 130 and 131: his own army my brother decided to
- Page 132 and 133: the gatekeeper told me, “Come in.
- Page 134 and 135: was a member of the International R
- Page 136 and 137: What were you exactly charged for?
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Ústí nad Labem to Prague, Pankrác prison by a paddy wagon which had only small windows<br />
and we got in through the back door. It was a long journey, you know, and some of us needed<br />
the toilet. It was literally peeing under the machine gun. At the end of the day we were not shy<br />
anymore so we did not mind them watching us. Before Prague we had to change from wagon<br />
to tatraplan car and they blindfolded us. In Pankrác we were put into holding where we could<br />
wear our civilian clothes. When they arrested us, I thought that it would be for a longer time,<br />
but I was an optimist and did not expect it to last for so long. Apart from the suit, which I was<br />
wearing, I took a black warm coat. I was really happy that I did, I used it as a blanket, especially<br />
in Pankrác because there were not enough of them.<br />
Did you experience any confrontation?<br />
They confronted me with one man – a priest, František Blais. The examiners shouted at me,<br />
“So you say that your mother did not know about you helping people crossing the borders!”<br />
I wanted to protect my mother, because if they had arrested her, my grandma would have<br />
stayed alone, so I had to deny everything. They told me, “You may change your mind.” I was<br />
blindfolded and did not take the cloth off my eyes, but I knew that they would beat František<br />
Blais. He took a real beating. He confirmed everything, but maybe he did not recognise me,<br />
but I recognised his voice. My mother stayed at home even though her life was quite tough,<br />
but she was there together with grandma, which made things easier.<br />
How was your trial?<br />
First, I thought that everything would be solved by the court. I imagined that I would have to<br />
swear on some crucifix, but all the crucifixes were already gone. I was such a naïve prisoner. Our<br />
trial was open to the members of our families. I could see my mother, my future husband’s parents,<br />
and wives of my accomplices. There were eleven of us on trial, but I was the only woman.<br />
The trial took place on 27th and 28th November 1951. Communists arrested their own Communists<br />
that night, the Jewish group of Slánský, Goldstücker, London, and the others. They told us<br />
the proposals on the first day, the fact they arrested that Jewish group caused lighter sentences<br />
on the next day. So our group got 15 years. I got 13, then someone else got 12, 11, 10, 7, and one<br />
got 5 years. After the trial they took us underground, I looked back at my father and the people<br />
I knew. The police officer told me off for doing that, but I said, “I will always be part of my family,<br />
whenever and wherever!” He reported me. I started the next day with my punishment. I got<br />
ten nights on a hard bed and half-portions of meals in solitary confinement in Pankrác.<br />
What was solitary confinement in Pankrác like?<br />
There was a wooden bunk-bed that looked like this: a plank and gap, plank and gap with no<br />
mattress on it and bedbugs everywhere. Every evening you had to report your name, number<br />
and so on. The officer asked me, “Do you have it with or without a lid?” First I did not know<br />
what was going on. There was that toilet embedded in the floor and I think there might have<br />
been rats. At the end the officer gave me the lid, so I covered the toilet and fell asleep. I did<br />
not finish that punishment. Two or three days before the end I was taken away and moved to<br />
Kladno. They probably needed some extra prisoners. We never knew where we were going,<br />
the sign on the bus always said “tour.” We left on December 6, 1951, on Saint Nicolas Day.<br />
What happened in Kladno?<br />
In Kladno I worked in steelworks in a smelting plant. There were cranes with some liquid<br />
alloy moving above our heads and big pots with some boiling hot stuff. It looked like hell. It<br />
stank very badly, even a slice of bread you had in your pocket got stinky. I worked with a ma-<br />
<strong>Czechoslovak</strong> <strong>Political</strong> <strong>Prisoners</strong> 89