Miloslav Pelcl

“Before we were taken to the Loreta in Hradčany, I had been accused of high treason and espionage. Their reasoning was as follows: treason was for meeting in groups while doing the military service, and reading literature from the Vatican. A colleague of mine had religious literature there and we were reading it. We were thus allegedly in contact with the Vatican, which was a superpower hostile to our country. This was high treason for them, no trifle. That was the first accusation. The other one was espionage. Some of the books we discussed also mentioned one religious movement. As I said, there were some thoughts on the development of Christianity, and the book described some religious youth movement in France. It was called the Jocist movement, where there were priests living not only in rectories, but they were also working in factories and elsewhere. The accusation stated that we were preparing to go into factories once we were released and conduct espionage on what was being done in the factory. We were charged with espionage for this.”

“I spoke about the PTP and about the rehabilitation. Just today I received a letter from the ministry of interior. We demanded some rehabilitation according to the extrajudicial law. I can read this letter to you. It says that the ministry of defence considers the Auxiliary Technical Battalions, where I spent 40 months, that’s almost like the military conscription in the time of Maria Theresa, to be the basic two-year military service as required by the law; they are quoting some law from 1949 here, and they refer to this today. However, what followed after these two years, when we were held there for some extraordinary training without intermission, was legal according to some law from 1949 as they claim. Thus there is no rehabilitation. That’s what I got today.”

“The communists took over here in Třebová in 1948 and as soon as they learnt that I wanted to study, they said to my father, who was a worker: ´How come that your son, a son from a worker’s family, will go to study theology?´ It was an ideology against which they fought. As I said, we lived in poverty. We all lived in one room, and we kept moving from one place to another all the time. Till 1945 we were using a kerosene lamp for lightning. In spite of these conditions, I managed to finish my secondary school studies before 1945. But when they learnt that I wanted to continue studying theology, it became hell. They were coming to speak with my dad all the time: ´That’s nonsense for a boy from a worker’s family to study theology. We will give you an apartment. We’ll find a university for your boy which he would like to study, and we guarantee that he’ll get admitted there.´ An apartment, a promise of my career, and I don’t know what else. Obviously, I didn’t let myself be influenced by that and I went to study anyway.”

“I will not go into detail when talking about the interrogation. But mostly it consisted in psychic pressure. You have your mom and sister. Do you realize that you may never see them again? This kind of psychic pressure was the worst. And then, the physical conditions in the cell were terrible. Terrible, because you were not able to get some sleep. You were walking in there, eight steps there and eight steps back. The guards kept walking in the corridor. One could hear and sometimes also see when the opening in the door moved and they peered inside. In the evening they gave me permission to put the straw mattress on the floor. The mattress was reclining against the wall and you were only allowed to place it on the floor when they gave you the permission. Only then you could lie down. They allowed you to lie down, but they kept the light on. It was not dark at night. There was always light inside. While you were lying down, they kept banging on the door. I would fall asleep for a moment, and then bang, bang, bang on the door. The warden. So you woke up again. Apart from the psychic pressure there was the physical deprivation, because you couldn’t sleep. Regarding food, the door would open in the morning. You would first have to say your number 378 and then kneel down like a dog. Just like an animal on the ground, and stick your hand out. The mess tin with some ersatz coffee and a piece of bread was placed in front of the door. But this was bread for the whole day. You could divide it in three pieces for morning, noon and evening. They would perhaps bring something else at noon, too. But that was all. If you ate it in the morning, then you couldn’t eat in the evening. I remember that when I got arrested, I had 84 kilos, and two months later when they checked my weight, I had 62.”