Kamil Mihál

“Once we got the idea to go to the Malá Amerika quarry, which is not far from the Karlštejn castle. We went from Beroun. In one pub, we met some Slovaks from Handlová. They also said they were going to Amerika. We had a couple of drinks in the pub together. In the evening, we found an abandoned house for an overnight stay near the quarry. We prepared supper, making fire. Suddenly a pack of the VB members (Public Security, the then police) and PS VB (ed. Guard Auxiliary Public Security, police helpers who wore yellow ribbons) jumped inside. They were probably employees of the quarry and in the afternoon, they „ played cops“. They beat us there, threw us on a pile and photographed us. They also took the things that we brought with us: our camouflage trousers, the tent and our military shoes... They confiscated everything. They put us on a train and told us to get out of there. With us was our friend from Tábor, who also belonged to the tramp settlement. And they beat him up the most. His father taught in Prague at the Faculty of Law at Charles University. When we got to Ostrov, and because this friend had visible bruises on his back and legs from the baton blows, we went to the doctor at the emergency room. He looked at it, ‘How did that happen?’ The cops beat us’. When he heard it, he threw us out, saying he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. He also refused to write a medical report about it. Uncle Pařízek was an officer in the economic unit of the police in Karlovy Vary. And he was just visiting our family. When we explained everything to him, he told us that they did not have the right to confiscate our belongings and that we should go and get them back. Therefore, the next day, we sat in the car and drove first to Beroun. From there we were sent to Karlštejn to the local police station. When my uncle showed the members of the VB his badge of a Major of the police criminal investigation unit, they put it right and returned all the confiscated things.”