"I was quite active in the civilian sector and in other areas in the military. I was to report anything that I became aware of, any unpleasant affair in the sense of a disclosure. That is, to cooperate with counterintelligence." - "Did you report anything? Did you ever learn anything?" - "I'd almost say I don't know. I can think of two occasions. There was a skiing world cup event in [Liptovský] Mikuláš. When preparing the race, they made the tracks and so on. It was a huge event, and it was all done by soldiers, by us. I actually directed some of the groups. I signed a statement as part of secret command that I would not reveal anything under cover or any military secret when I in contact with NATO forces."
"I remember the Germans came to see our cottage, which we had as boys during the reconstruction of the borderland, sometime in 1950. They thanked us very politely for taking such good care of the house, making sure everything was in order. Even though we were almost adult in the seventh or eighth high school grade, we didn't fully realize the horrors the people on the eastern and western fronts must have experienced. The real turmoil of war that swept over them."
"These rough, severe checks were done mainly after the assassination of Heydrich. The SS men came to a village, set a machine gun at the crossroads and walked by in twos, checking every house to see if there were any assassins in hiding. I recall this. When we lived in Určice, you weren't allowed to kill a pig at home. You had to surrender a half or a quarter of it to the army. My dad made a secret deal with the butcher and they killed a pig. We had two big pots full of lard when the check was announced. We had a bathroom and the house was being remodeled, so dad figured he'd put mum in a tub of hot water when the inspectors came and hide the pots behind the tub. It seems like a funny story today but it was what it was. We had a secret door from the bedroom to the bathroom. When the inspectors came all the way in there and asked what that door was, my dad opened it and said, 'Sorry, but my wife is taking a bath right now.' That's how we saved two pots of lard because it was an important food item to have."
Jan Bělka was born in Prostějov on 7 March 1932. He spent his childhood during the Nazi occupation, witnessing the invasion of the Nazi army into Czech territory. He witnessed the post-war resettlement of the borderland, acquiring a house with friends in Vernířovice in northern Moravia after the deportation of the Sudeten Germans. Completing high school in Prostějov in 1951, he enlisted in the military academy in Lipník nad Bečvou and Hranice na Moravě. After graduating from the academy, he chose to study physical education at Charles University‘s Faculty of Physical Education and Sports. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1957, which he saw as a way to contribute to improving the existing conditions and advance professionally. He worked at the Military Technical College in Liptovský Mikuláš, heading the physical education department and taking part in the construction of a modern physical education complex. From 1957 to 1959 he studied in Moscow, meeting top representatives of the Czechoslovak army and learning from Soviet experts. From 1976 to 1980, he worked with the military counterintelligence under the code name Monika and had access to classified information about the modernisation of the army and missile defence. He was living in Prague at the time of filming in 2024.
Agáta Fialová, Anežka Veselá, Agáta Kněžínková, Dominika Cvrková a Eliška Behenská ze ZŠ Charlotty Masarykové, Praha 5 – Velká Chuchle pod pedagogickým vedením Tomáše Hromádky
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