Jan Slezák

“We had a hard time bearing that for people we were the bad guys who caused the massacre on Národní třída (November 17, 1989 - Ed. note). Which wasn't true. And then we started saying it out loud, because we didn't want to leave it as it was. We didn't beat people into blood. These were the 'red berets', URNA (Rapid reaction unit – Editor´s note), who made an aisle there and beat people who had to walk through that aisle. Despite the fact that the boys who were there were with the police for two months. They started on the first of October; they did not even have a basic training. So, we thought we just couldn't leave it like that. It was convenient for someone to ascribe it all to the emergency policeman, because they were supposed to take action. But no one wrote about the fact that the boys of the local departments intervened, that URNA intervened.”

“We were called “threshers”, an emergency policeman was perceived in this way, even though when there were some brutal interventions, for example stáťáci (StB officers – editor´s note), civilians or local boys were the ones who did it. As I said, when someone is watching a documentary or an authentic footage, it is necessary to distinguish what baton those people got. Whether it was a white baton or a black baton. The emergency policeman hit with white batons, everyone else had black ones.”

“You've never been in a skin of a cop. The cop must obey the laws and follow orders as in the military. I already mentioned it in the interviews. That's what the Gestapo said, too, that they were following the law, even though they were killing people. We didn't kill anyone, but we had to obey the order and the law.”

Interviewer: “How do you view your work today in the emergency regiment? Do you have a moral problem? Is that something you might be ashamed of? ”JS:“ When I came here, I was wondering if you would ask me such a question. And I tried to answer it myself. If I would do what I was doing, when I knew what was going to happen. I would. Because I wouldn't know what it would be. And as for the morals ... There are morals and morals, right? How would I put it ... In terms of morals, it is that at that time the things we were doing did not seem immoral to us. I guess that's how I put it.”

“When we were about to finish, I was called by the company commander and asked if I wanted to stay on the ready (SNB Emergency Regiment - ed. Ed.) as a deputy platoon commander. I asked what it meant, and he says, 'This, this, this ... And you get the apartments fast here.' I was just married at that time, so I thought it would be great to get an apartment - moreover people were waiting for flats in Prague for a long time. So, I nodded. Because the idea of prostituting somewhere did not take me at all.”