Edvard Schiffauer

“The typical thing here was that when the investigation ended, before the trial started, we had the option to see the case file. It had about two thousand pages, I spent I think two or three days there for sure. So then I asked my investigator, the captain, why they took us specifically - there were nine of us. At the time we were all of the same opinion, and he could have taken any nine people from the street and find some kind of reason for punishing them. And he told me, and I made note of it, that it didn’t matter which nine they took, but what kind of impact it would have on those who were active somehow or would like to be active. So it really was a show trial, in which they showed their vigilance. The typical thing was that they published a two-page article in Nová svoboda [New Liberty, a newspaper - trans.], how the air had improved in Ostrava. They gave an absolutely horrific description of the meeting in Leskovec and how dreadful we were. How better the air was in Ostrava now that they had removed such freeloader, such evil people, who were ruining what we had been given a year and a half or two years ago by our Soviet friends - the opportunity to work freely, in liberty.”

“When we asked the HSTD [a Czech acronym for the Main Press Supervisory Board - trans.] for permission for Rain Gutter Theatre, our request was refused because apparently the acronym DPO [Divadélko Pod okapem, the name of the theatre in Czech - trans.] might be interpreted by some citizens of Ostrava as ‘fuck’s sake, Ostravans’ [orig. ‘do prdele, Ostraváci’ - trans.], for which reason the application is denied. So back then we pledged in writing that the acronym DPO will never be used, that the acronym will be OKAP [‘okap’ means gutter - trans.], as in Rain Gutter Theatre, well, and then they approved it. That’s how ridiculous press supervision was at the time.”

“Mr. Štefek, I beg you, give me back my peace. I am in a bad psychical state again. I cannot stop thinking about the fact that I met you and that I will have to meet you again. I ask you as another human being, please, try to make a decision that would bring happiness to another man. I am not keen on cooperating with you, I do not wish to cooperate with you, and I want to have peace from everyone and from everything. I want to write and write, and I am truly convinced that through my writing I can contribute to the society with far greater and more lasting values than through my failed cooperation with you. In Štítina, on October 25th, 1984.”

“The music theatre is on the second floor. People were coming from the street and right in the door we searched them if they had any weapons. We had submachine guns ourselves and we were dressed as partisans. The people then walked up to the second floor where they had to say the password, and if they had forgotten it, they had to go back... Then they entered the vestibule, and there was a pile of various army stuff, some fences, and dirty things scattered all over. A pole with a map of Europe hung on it was stuck in the middle of this pile, and arrows from five states were aiming at our country. It was a kind of a silent symbol. When people came for the play, they were right in it.”

“I only began to understand the purpose of the trial when I studied the findings of the investigation a year later. The file had about two thousand pages, and I spent three days in the court building before I managed to go through it. I asked my investigator at that time why they had arrested specifically the nine of us when they could have arrested any other nine people who shared the same opinion. I wrote down what he replied to me at that time: ‘It does not matter whom we arrested; what matters is what impact it will have on those who would ever want to do something similar.’ It simply served as an exemplary trial.”