Blažena Mlejnková

"Six men got out of the cars and said, 'Wait a while.' They went upstairs, we lived on the third floor. They rang the bell, I went to open the door. They asked whether Mr. Voborský is at home. I asked how could I help them and they said that I would see. They pushed me aside and went inside. Daddy had probably guessed something. We only had a kitchen and one room, it was a divided flat. He was in that room, then he came out from the room and he was wearing only his shirt. And then they went. Six blokes, they held his hands behind his back and led him away, with no coat, in house slippers only. And that they're taking him away. We were surprised but they said they would be back. Mom at least put his shoes on and threw a coat over his shoulders. They would leave him half-dressed like this, in February, only in his shirt. They took him downstairs and then drove away. Six of them came, four of them drove away with dad and two stayed in our place to guard us so that we wouldn't let anyone know or something similar."

"During the 1960's thaw, they released him after 15 years. They put him in jail in '49 and he came home on the 12th March in 1964. Life sentence was commuted to 15 years. He died two years later. He was 62." - "What was he accused of and sentenced for?" - "High treason, weapons..." - "Was that a show trial?" - "Not the whole thing, I believe that there was something to it. I can't say that all of that would be..."

"Dad was the only one from that group who was sentenced to death. We had an attorney, one Mašek from Vinohrady. I only know that he was very expensive but mom got the money from her family. They had a small business and they would lose it anyway so they rather spent it on uncle. They liked him. Thus the money that the attorney requested were provided by them."

"At first, mom was searching for him as well, we couldn't find where he was. It was Pankrác jail for a while, then Ruzyně prison and then they sent a package from Pankrác and there were dirty clothes in the package and even bloody clothes. He said that when they drove him in that car, they blindfolded him and took him to a forest, to some cottage. He smelled the forest. He didn't know which way they took him. They drove through the forest, they didn't leave him there. He was in Pankrác prison and then he went through all sorts of interrogations."

"In the direction where Evropská Street is, there were newly built houses and there we lived. In 1939, we saw the scores of German soldiers, coming like a flood from the Kladno direction towards Prague. It was horrible. People were there in front of their houses and cried, there was snow with rain. I still see it in front of me. Just in the morning, we went to school and the teacher, Mr. Kochánek, told us: 'Children, something horrible happened today.' We sung the anthem and the song Čechy krásné, Čechy mé [~My Bohemia beautiful] and then they let us go home. Which is why we could see how the Germans occupied Prague."