“The interrogation was carried out in the following way. They stood me as a skittle in the middle of the circle and they were passing me around with punches, with truncheons, with their fists and kicks. They cut my face with something during this action. The scar is gone. But they damaged my ear in such a way that I had a barotitis and internal ear inflammation. As time went by a lump grew here behind my ear. Later it burst and pus and blood came out of it. Next, they somehow burnt my hands with something. Both my hands were burnt. Just here where the socket is, there was only a swelling. But the rest of it was burnt. Then my hands were grazed from those, you know..., because I still wore those bracelets. American clicking bracelets that got closed with every movement. One of them, I knew who he was, told me in the end: 'Doctor, have you ever been kicked by a mare?' And he gave me such a punch that I flew through the air and fell on the floor. I lost consciousness during the interrogation and I didn't wake up till I was down in the cellar. There was an old policeman standing over me, he was guarding the prison. He said: 'Oh fuck, they really roughed you up! Hang on, your hands are burnt. There is a black marketeer, he's got some butter.' He took the butter, jabbed a bit off, he brought it and put it on my hands. He was also bringing me around. He said: 'I've been bringing you around for about twenty minutes and I can't do it. They put you through the wringer!'”
“Then visitors came to Bory. They allowed visitors there. There were longer intervals between visits, though, but they allowed visitors. Just there I experienced brutality of warden Brabec. Spálenka, our soldier belonging to president Beneš's guard in England, had some visitors with me at the same time. He got married in England and they had a baby. And his baby, his wife plus an English Embassy clerk were visiting him. And Spálenka had some visitors at the same time with me. The little one, the baby tried to shove her arm through. And she shoved her arm through a hole between the cut metal and the glass in individual cubicles. Then Brabec hit her little arm with his truncheon. A horrible racket because the Englishman and the Englishwoman were there. They stopped visits, we were chased into cells and there was a great racket there.”
“Since I wanted to improve my German I enrolled in a German Technical School. It was very important to me because at that time already, as a young secondary school student, I managed to get at a position with great national clashes. Because the German Technical School in Brno was purely Nazi. We were together only about two or three Czechs, real Czechs and real Czechoslovaks in the year in which I was enrolled. It really meant members of the Czechoslovak nation. Whereas the Germans mostly inclined to Nazism, beginning with professors. They themselves had 'mensures' (scars) from fighting at the times of their university studies. A 'mensure' is a face injury that you get in a fencing duel. Your eyes and nose are covered and the opponents intentionally make scars on their faces. That is according to what you recognize German university students. Because they usually have 'mensures' on their faces. You are surprised but they value their scars very much. I also experienced a wedding of a German university student. He was walking with his bride through a lane of his colleagues in uniforms. They cheered him with their crossed swords. At that moment I thought something about monkeys, you see, and I though it was funny. However, in the end the occupation showed that it was no fun but a very sad thing.”
“Well, they sent me to the transport to the camp XII. It was one of the largest camps in Slavkov region. It was about a thousand metres high above the sea level or I don't know how many, simply very high. And when I came there to the camp, just two days after my arrival the so called flight from the twelve happened. About five cons were shot dead and some people were injured. One of them was so beaten that he stopped talking and moving. It was Štich. A State Security officer was trying to find out whether Štich, when he was in hospital there, whether he was really inert. He burnt his legs with his cigarette, his thumbs and feet. And he found out that he really did not respond. He started talking after some longer time. However, he didn't remember anything. Three - the policeman that collaborated with prisoners and two prisoners – were put to death. Five people were shot dead and Štich and Kukal remained. Kukal was shot so he avoided the moment when they presented the two who were arrested in the camp XII. And they were kicking the dead that were lying there. The camp leader Prokop, the leader was called Pták, he was kicking them and was treading on the dead. There was a line-up at the same time. We were lined up at midnight and the two arrested, you could see that they had been beaten that they even didn't know who they were, they walked among the lines and showed those who still didn't know about it.”
“Well, and the Victorious February came. I assumed office, I started working in the office. Well, working in the office... Simply I tried to do something. Thereupon seven sub-machine gun men came and they led me out. It was my end. Because what should I do? I still wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to go for a commissioner exam in the Ministry of Education. So I took the advantage of the fact that there was no time. So I still managed to pass the commissioner exam. Then I was asked to return my identity card that allowed me to enter Straka Academy and I became unemployed.”
Jan Pospíšil was born in Černovice at the town Tábor on August 13th, 1916. However, he soon moved to Brno where his father was employed in the I. State Real School. He spent his childhood in Brno and he went through all his studies there. He completed his studies with a Doctorate of Law from the local Faculty of Law. He also met Dr. Stránský there, who offered him the post of law official in the Government Presidium and later the post of his secretary in the Ministry of Education. His career in the Ministry was ended by the ‚Victorious February.‘ He helped Stránský to leave the Republic illegally as well as another colleague of his. However, he resolved to not leave. Those activities and other, mostly made-up and absurd, accusations caused his arrest in 1949. He was interrogated in a brutal way and eventually sentenced to a twenty-year imprisonment for espionage and high treason. He experienced imprisonment in Bory, Jáchymov, Slavkov, and Příbram camps including the dreaded ‚L.‘ He worked in a rock breaking section, which was the most active spot in the camp. They processed ore with high portions of uranium. He was granted amnesty in 1960. He returned to Brno. First he worked as a bricklayer and a carpenter, later as a TV repairman. After November 1989 he became an active member of the Political Prisoners Confederacy. He also worked in the Documentation and Communism Crime Investigation Bureau. Apart from other things, as an expert in this field he participated in the writing books Hyeny v akci and Sluha dvou pánů (Hyenas in Action and Servant of Two Masters).
František Hanzlík, Jan Pospíšil, Jaroslav Pospíšil
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