Vojtech Pastor

“One day they placed to my cell two young sporty prisoners. They introduced themselves to me and one of them told me he got a death penalty for murder. I asked him, what had happened and he said he had killed his father. The second guy was expecting to get also a high sentence, since allegedly he killed his wife and their child. You know, that made my hair stand on end. (…) And it all immediately became clear to me. Why would murderers be in one cell with me, a political prisoner? They came there to torture and ruin me. Moreover, they still wanted me to sign false testimony fabricated by the prosecutor. They could not “break” me and I said to myself: ʻI don´t care what they do to me, I won´t give up, even if they kill me.ʼ Then one of those men pulled out a big knife. (The fact that he had such knife in the prison was just a proof of them being shammed to destroy me.) At first he threatened me with pricking my eyes out and then killing me like his father. They tortured me day and night, in many different ways, but they did not succeed. It took them app. two months and I truly suffered a lot. Those were hyenas in human skin. Since they didn´t make me to sign the testimony, they were called off my cell. Then I had peace for a little while, although, of course, there were guards banging on my door, insulting me, letting the light on during the nights (I had pain in my eyes as a result of that), dripping water (what made me really nervous), I was allowed to have hands only in certain position, etc. There were so many different unbelievable ways of psychological torture they used on me. Approximately a month after those two men left from my cell, a male nurse came. He told me he had to vaccinate me, as some epidemic was being spread out in the prison. And again, I knew what could I expect, it was obvious what was going on.”

“We were given the paragraph no. 219 – from twelve to fifteen years up to the death sentence. That wasn´t fun at all, for God´s sake. (Štefan Haško: “Why?”) Because she was supposed to be shoved under the tram, imagine that! Something so outrageous and fabricated! Sure, you might ask about the witnesses, but they had many of those – she was the main witness, her sons, and they found others who confirmed the indictment. (…) (Štefan Haško: “And you were tried as an accomplice of premeditated murder?”) Yes, except the square (note: where Vojtech built up barricades against the Warsaw Pact troops) they tangled me into this matter as well. It was the worst thing that could have happened. There was one witness, a driver of the transport company, who during the interrogation witnessed and confirmed that he saw a woman on the rails and if he didn´t put the brakes on, he would have striked her for sure. But now I shall describe you how the communist were smart on one hand, but stupid and limited on the other hand. When the main hearing came, forty months later (and she witnessed we supposedly shoved her under the tram, hit and harassed her, and along with others she made up such impudence) happened something, what nobody expected. The tram driver, who at the beginning confirmed the prosecution´s story, came to testify. When the judge called him up to give a testimony, he was very honest, conscientious and brave. He said his conscience would not let him bear out his original testimony and condemn us, innocent people, to several years or even to death penalty. (…) The whole senate got into fury and they reproached him for speaking differently compared to the past. He said back then he had done so because of fear and their coercion, as they threatened him with imprisonment and with destroying his whole family. He added that his original testimony was fabricated and he even asked if all members of the senate were really so stupid. You know, he questioned them whether the tram could have went through the main street even if all of the power lines and rails were being tore because of tanks?! He told them he had never seen a tram powered by oil or gas! End, they were ʻdoneʼ.”

(Štefan Haško: “How did you build those barricades?”) We gathered anything there; we used building material from the unfinished hotel Slovan – pieces of iron, sheets, bricks, blocks, anything possible. Then we hid ourselves. Of course, all of it was a matter of health as well, although, a man in such situation doesn´t think about this stuff, since he is coming there with certain intention and feeling of doing something for freedom, for own homeland, in which he was born and for which he is taking such very precious action. The one was not thinking about doing anything illegal at all. When a man sees others shooting on him from tanks and automats! And we had only bare hands to defend ourselves! So we had to do something. They didn´t come here to ʻrub our butts with feathersʼ! They came here to murder, to kill and yet they invited all the Warsaw Pact troops, another five states, totaling with thousands of soldiers. We fought back just as we could. We had there two barrels of oil; we made torches out of sticks, put them on fire and threw them on cars and armed vehicles. Some of them began to burn and of course, the soldiers started to shoot at us. I was quite lucky as one bullet scratched my nose. However, they were blackguards comparable with Gestapo, because they didn´t mind people around. One lady stood in front of the tank with a baby in her arms and they would have brashly knocked her down if one gentlemen didn´t pulled her away in the very last moment. They were not better than Hitler or Fascists at all.”