Karol Maník

“I don’t know what the strongest reason was, which led me to agree with it, I don’t remember which year it was. I think it was after the war, in 1946 or maybe in 1945… Because then there were debates how to eliminate priests. There was a discussion how to eliminate the manse and the priest and to establish a collective farm; how to put all the church property and church fields under state ownership and how it all should look like. The future, it was communism. So I thought it was the right time to start to fight against communism. ‘Let’s do it, young boy, from the very outset!’ I couldn’t agree with it.”

“So I told him when he was there that I had found good and glossy furniture made of hard wood, but I hadn’t had enough money. And he generously said: ‘I will help you with that.’ And he gave me ten thousand crowns to buy it. So when I came back from the vacation, I went to the shop and paid for the furniture. As I have already mentioned, the soldiers willingly helped me to get a car and put all the furniture inside. All the wardrobes were dismantled and I sent the furniture home. But when it came home, it was taken by the State Security agents. My wife brought it home, but they took it away, so she had to buy the furniture for ten thousand crowns again. Therefore, I got under suspicion. I was working the shift when they arrested me.”

“I cried: ‘Father! Father!’ You can’t imagine that - the feeling, the meeting. And he, my eyes filled with tears, and he... I just said: ‘Father, I’m sorry, forgive me, please.’ ‘I forgive you, my son. Don’t worry. Have they beaten you? Have they tortured you? I don’t blame you, because if I wasn’t arrested then, I would be arrested later as a kulak. I would be imprisoned in any case. Now I know all the things I did were right. Don’t be scared, my son, forget it.’”