Blanka Včeláková

"We had to sign a release receipt that we're going home and were transported on an open car in the evening at nine o'clock. Our train was going around midnight. I was handed out 500 crowns. I had a string bag and a borrowed wallet in that bag, borrowed clothes from a girl from Jablonec. I came to the station and since I hadn’t eaten for a whole one day and I was thirsty and hungry, I wanted to get some food somewhere. But they didn’t have anything at the station in the evening. There was only a pub with beer on a tap. I said: 'Well, I'll have a small beer'. Now I was standing there and the bar tender said: 'I haven’t seen anybody paying for a small beer with a 500-crown bill, yet'."

"There we waited half a year for the court. In June we had a show trial in Liberec held in the People's Park. As viewers, we had young militiamen coming in. The chairs were set up as in a theater. In front of us, there was a big board and lying on it was one rifle and a revolver. We were accused of planning the overthrow of the Republic. They pointed at these weapons. ‘How many of you were in this group?’ ‘Twenty-seven, but there were also members of the police in the group, they all had guns, but they could not be accounted for by the court. The trial lasted three days and I was sentenced to sixteen years of imprisonment. In that court, I said that I had been beaten and forced to make my testimony. I said that if they had said that I killed my father, I would have signed it. None of the guys – and they had been beaten - no one said it, just I said it, for those slaps. ‘Did they beat you?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Did they beat you?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Did they beat you?’ ‘Yes’. Take a note, they said to the secretary."