“I got a new pair of work trousers, my parents bought them for me. My supervisor told me exactly where to go and what to do there. When I came there I was told to take as many bricks as I could and to follow the other workers. I took my new trousers on but the boys warned me that I would ruin them completely. But I told them that I got them for work so it was alright if they got a bit worn. The boys asked me all kinds of questions, such as where I had been or what I had done before I came to jail. I would tell them that I had always wanted to be a teacher. Actually the truth was that I had desired to become a catechist so I could say that I had wanted to be a teacher. I wouldn’t tell everybody that I met that I was a priest because if I did, they would start talking about what church they had seen and where they had seen it and that would be all we would talk about. We wouldn´t have anything else to talk about. So I would tell them that I had been a teacher and everybody would swear, curse and grumble in my presence and we understood each other and everything went just fine. When they were swearing, I remained silent because I was used to ask God for forgiveness in my thoughts when somebody used God’s name in vain.”
“We were in the town of Banská Bystrica and in the town of Zvolen. We had been stationed in Zvolen, just a small unit. We helped the bricklayers to build some compounds for the air force. Then they relocated us to a base between Zvolen and Banská Bystrica. There were three bases between these two towns in total, I think. The crew of that base that we were moved to listened to Radio Free Europe, but we did it secretly. At this base my commander once came to talk to me. He was at the auxiliary technical battalion for almost the same reasons as the rest of us but he got to be the commander somehow so he was our boss. He told me to pack my things and to go to the road where a captain was supposed to pick me up. I was supposed to become his new flunkey. Well that was interesting. When I got out from our base, one of the soldiers joined me and he told me that the night before, he got a little drunk in the pub and let his tongue slip a little. It was no good for us. But we couldn´t do anything but wait on the road. A car came after a few minutes and a second lieutenant got out of it. He gave us an evil look. There was another soldier who got out of the car. He was huge! If he had slapped me in the face, I would fly away. The second lieutenant asked for our identity cards. He took a look at the card of that other soldier and ordered him to return to the base. Then he looked at mine and he commanded me to get in the car. They handcuffed me and led me to the car. They told me to get in and sit in the corner. On the back seat, I realized that there was no door knob. It had been removed. The big soldier sat next to me and the second lieutenant turned back from the front seat and told me that if I said a word, they would beat me up and he asked me if I understood. I nodded, laid down, they covered me with a coat and they transported me like that.”
“The main reason why I was arrested is that they found two leaflets, as they called it, during one of the regular searches. Every time they searched us, we had to put our hands up. They searched everything, including our pockets. In my pockets they found two papers. One was a letter that the Holy Father wrote to us – the Czech priests – where he encouraged us to stay strong and kind. It was a very devout and nice letter. It could have hardly irritated anybody. So this was the first anti-state leaflet. The second one was a message from Virgin Mary. It was an appeal to keep our identity, to not be comrades but maintain solidarity and stay priests. It was an encouragement for those who were bullied like we were. Those were the two leaflets that were found during the anti-state Operation K. For those two pieces of paper, I ended up in jail and found to have an anti-state stance” (Interviewer: “An element or an agent?”)”That’s all nice and good but not exactly my case. Well, I was found to have an anti-state attitude and therefore I was arrested and sentenced later on. The sentences ranged from 10 years imprisonment to death by hanging.” (Interviewer: “high treason?”) “Yes, high treason!”
Josef Vít Husek was born on February 2, 1923, in the Old Town. His parents were both strong believers and their religious belief influenced Josef while choosing his career. After he graduated from secondary school, he decided to join the Franciscan order. Twelve newly chosen members of the order – including Josef – got a chance to study theology in Belgium in the post-war year of 1946. After the graduation from his studies, Josef was ordained a priest. In 1949, the whole group of students came back to Czechoslovakia. Josef Husek worked as an assistant priest for a short time and he taught children religion. In 1950, Josef experienced the so-called “Operation K” in which the communists destroyed a number of monasteries and male Catholic monastic orders. At the age of 30, Josef joined the army. He spent his military service at the auxiliary technical battalion. Josef was arrested because of two religious leaflets found with him during a search. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison for treason. He served his term in the town of Valdice and he lived to see his release during an amnesty in 1961. After his release from prison, Josef could not find a job for a long time until he managed to find an employment in engineering. At first, he worked as a furnace operator and later on he passed a retraining course for a crane operator. In 1968, Josef accepted an offer to come back to his priestly profession and was placed at the presbytery in the village of Maletín near the town of Zábřeh. Father Josef Vít Husek lived in the House of the Franciscan brothers in the town of Moravská Třebová. He died on January 4, 2015.
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