Josef Touš

“Sutty came, because major Rachač was to return.” – “Do you know why he went to Prague?” – “He had some mission there, he was assigned some tasks. Do you understand? And they caught him there.” – “And he was supposed to come back?” – “He was to come back, but he didn’t. StB men came instead, and they waited for Sutty.” – “And they caught him right here, in the Touš family farm?” – “They got him here. There was shooting. When I came home, the handle on the door had been shot off.”

"The period in Klatovy was quite tough. I contracted scarlet fever. I was already over twenty years of age. I had a very high fever. The doctor whom they called ordered that I be taken to the hospital. Because I had a very high fever, I was in agony. But the StB policemen said: ´He’s not going anywhere.´ So I was relieving myself with only Aspirin, and that was it. Believe it or not, there was a warden, a certain Václav Suchý, he was the only one to... In order to avoid drinking water from the toilet, it was the best water, because if they gave you a jar with water and they left it there for a long time, and I was in the solitary cell for several months, then water from the toilet was better. Suchý would always come at night and ask: ´Do you have enough to drink?´ And he would bring me a pot, a one-litre pot or even bigger, of black coffee.”

“In the past the Chods guarded the borders against an enemy from the outside. We also patrolled the borders. I was still young, so I wasn’t doing it so much, but my father did. He knew the area well, and he has helped many people. Now it was the other way round. In the past the Chods were patrolling the borders and the sovereign gave them rewards for it. And we got our reward, too: looking for a hole in the Iron Curtain: a hole leading out of the country.”

“His next question was: ´What will you do after your release?´ I replied: ´You know, Mr. political educator, my origins lie in agriculture, and thus I would like to work in agriculture.´ He says: ´That’s good. There are cooperatives being formed now. What do you think about our cooperative efforts?´ I told him: ´Mr. political educator, the idea of cooperativism is the only way to help our farmers.´ It was tricky, because I had the idea of cooperative farming as such in my mind – like the cooperatives based on self-help, for example machinery coops, or when farmers formed groups and helped each other. But he obviously had kolkhoz in his mind. Thus he was perfectly satisfied with my reply and he literally beamed.”