František Polák

“I didn't forgive the communists and I never will! All that humiliation and those restrictions. Looking back, today you can do almost anything you want to, but we used to go like sheep, with our heads down. And anyone who dared to speak was punished. I can't! I can't forgive them! No one could ask me to do that. It's too powerful...”

“Most of them, when there was changing of the guards, went down the corridor and they had batons – like those you could see in movies, walking around banging on cell bars – they went around banging on doors as there were no bars. There were just bars on the windows. So we knew that they were changing. And after some time, you could guess which warden was in charge at given moments. As if they couldn't sleep, they won't let us either. And when they came drunk, that was something. As it would happen, they weren't allowed to do it, but they did it anyway, that they would just drag their favourite inmate out of the cell and play football with him or so. They would kick him like the ball. As the floor was so well polished that you could just grab someone by the hand, it didn't require much strength, and you could just drag him as you liked to, so slippery it was. Or they would play hockey, they would get hockey sticks and push him around like a puck. And the more he would scream the more they would beat him. That was just inhumane, the things that had been happening there.”

“So I just told them that I refused to work there, after I saw what those boys looked like after just a few years – parched by the head, their fingers crippled, their joints all dried out so they could hardly walk. So I resisted. I signed up for a meeting with the chief to put forward my complaint. The chief would see me and they would beat me up. I had to spend twenty-one days in the Third Section, where they would beat me up again for my rudeness. And after I got out from this Third Department, I went back to work, accompanied by a warden who had reported this whole thing in the first place, so I would throw him down the stairs. I knew that they would give me another sentence, but that was a price I was willing to pay. And I knew there would be another court hearing and another sentence, three years at least. So it ended up badly again, but as I would have to meet him all the time and there had been no guarantee that I would behave, that I would leave him be, they transferred me to Liaz. There I was working as a lathe operator, drilling-machine operator and grinder operator, making quite a lot of money, and I spent my whole sentence there, six years and six months.”

“When I came to my senses I found myself in this room, two by three meters maybe, almost empty, just a toilet in the corner, and a bucket of water next to it. I kept telling myself: 'Where am I?' So I got up and started banging on the door, there was this little window in it. So the window would open and I would put my face right next to it, and they would punch me, I would fall down without finding anything. Later, the window would open again, and after my previous experience I rather kept my distance. And this little shovel would emerge and a plate with some food on it showed up. So I took the plate and fed myself, then this little shovel reemerged and they would take the plate away. And this went on for three days, no one would pay attention to us.”

“We went from Koníček, from the pub, at half past ten, and I said: “Look, the square is already empty.' And there were Russian flags all around Gottwald and so on. And maybe, or maybe almost certainly, the fact that we've been drinking added to all that, and I would say: 'Look, you know what, we will take him down with all those flags.' So we tied those three sticks of explosives to the statue, and Ondra said: 'Go to the ground.' There were those two side alleys maybe hundred meters away from the statue. 'So no one would come near. I can watch the other side, and God forbid anyone will get hurt.' We were already familiar with the area. I said: 'Okay then.' So we would set up the scene and I went to the right and Ondra to the left. Then we would give a whistle as a signal that it was all clear and Ondra would blow it all up. All I could see was a blast, then the statue went up and down again, broken to pieces. Then we would part and just disappear in opposite directions.”