Dalibor Plšek

“It was the biggest foul they could commit on the Czech nation. The normalisation process. 564,000 of communists stripped of their party membership, honest people who just did not agree with the invasion of foreign armies. Without any warning, wasn’t it? And regardless of the fact that there were some political issues. I have never accepted it and won’t accept it now. I think this was a process that the communists should be ashamed of till this day. I would be ashamed to be a communist today. Not because it is the communist party. But because of the way they behaved towards their own people.”

“I remember one case from 1968. A barn was burning at Spálenec, I don’t know if it was the children or Gipsies or who set fire to it. One citizen of the German Republic, who lived right next to the borders - we knew him by sight from when we did the demarcations, or because we would look, so we knew who it was - he went to have a look at the fire. Nevertheless, he crossed the state borders, he came right up to the fence, and there he was caught by a patrol. The soldiers did as they were ordered to, they caught him, called us, we sent an escort, they brought him to the base. So I talked with him, he told me he had seen the light from a blaze, that he had been afraid the forest would catch fire, and because he was in the vicinity, he went to have a look there. That was it, he had no other motives. I informed the higher command, the procurator. The procurator decided we should formally hand him back to the Germans. I phoned to the passport authority in Folmava, I said we had such and such a person, that he had gone to check out a fire, and what the procurator had decided - there had to be papers for everything. I asked the border attorney to negotiate the hand-over with the Germans - he could talk to them, I wasn’t allowed to. Also, there were Russians there, and they were very much surprised to see us trundling up with an old geezer with a pipe in his mouth and hand him over to the Germans. They regarded it as something [impossible]. Luckily, the border attorney was a tough one, and he sent them packing. So they shut up, we handed the German over, and the case was closed.”

“As a part of our training we made a 50km walk with combat gear. This was an experience I wish to no one. In such cases you really know what it is to reach the very bottom of your strength. On the one hand, it was fine that you learned what you could or could not manage; on the other hand we considered it to be… a kind of torture, to be honest. But we survived, of course. During that march I learned that people could really be friends. When someone failed, others helped him, for instance by carrying his gun. We walked with full combat gear, including ammunition. It was no fun to bear a 25kg box with ammo. It is true that after each hour there was a break. The more experienced, however, warned us: ‘Don’t sit, don’t lie down, because you won’t get up again.’ When we reached our destination, we fell, literally fell like dead. And we recovered for a week. But it was a part of the training.”

“One time we were walking along with one soldier because we weren’t allowed to check on the demarcation [ourselves]. We were checking the border markers along the state border in the area allotted to Border Company Maxov. There was a secluded cottage there, called Singer’s, it’s still there today. Not only did the German have a farm, he also had a refreshment stand for possible visitors, or for when he had holiday workers, he had this refreshment [stand], I don’t want to call it a pub. When we approached the building, it was a hot July day, and two members of the Grenzpolizei were sitting there, drinking beer. Of course, our mouths were dry as leather, we were sweating all over, but we reckoned: good for them. One of the policemen greeted us and asked if we didn’t want some beer as well. I replied in German that we’re sorry, but we’re not allowed to, and that we have to carry on with our duty. They laughed and we went on. However, there was an aftermath; luckily, I didn’t forget to write into my report what we had seen on the state border, that there were two [police] members there who had invited us for beer, but that we had refused. That was that, I regarded the matter as closed. But then I was questioned by counter intelligence, I had to write an extra report on the event. It was nothing really, just a humorous anecdote, the soldier probably informed about it, but I don’t know, I didn’t investigate any further, it was done and over as far as I was concerned. But it was one experience from my own service, we could never afford not only to cross the state border, but also to make any contact whatsoever. And it was suspicious because I had replied in German.” (Q: “And the soldier who accompanied you, did he know German?”) “No.”

“The conditions on the border patrol were quite different than in civilian life or other areas of human life. I must say that the border guards were trained to do what they were told. It was a tough, demanding service. I must admit even today that those guys who served then and spent twenty months on the border deserve deep respect. They did not protect the communist country. They protected the Czechoslovakian republic, their country. They didn’t care about the political aspects. This was given by the fact… I’m not saying it was a kind of nationalism but rather patriotism. Naturally, there were individuals who had doubts on certain things. And of course I, too, had my doubts – for instance when there were news from the 20th Convention of the Soviet Communist Party and Khrushchev’s criticism of Stalin’s personality cult. These were things that opened our eyes.”