Ladislav Hošek

“I sent a letter to Darebný, he was the best swimmer in Strakonice and a sergeant during his military service. He had an awesome athletic figure. I needed to tell him that the illegal organization was counting on him, that he was to choose ten people close to his workplace whom he would call when needed and get tasks assigned. I had to be absolutely sure this letter would not get into anybody else’s hands. I was watching the postman who was delivering letters in the workshop. I had a time plan, what time he was coming to Darebný, and the time span was some ten minutes. I wrote the letter, without signing it, what he was to do and urging him not to tell anyone, that we knew about him and that we would contact him when the time comes. I sent this letter and I followed the postman. I went for a chat with a friend of mine, who was about 30 metres from the place, in order to watch him. The postman came and I saw him giving my letter to Darebný. He opened it – the postman went away – closed the envelope and hid it. It was clear he knew what was going on, and that he would not talk about it anywhere, and that I could count on ten people to be ready with Darebný. This was the way you had to work. He did not suspect anything and only after the war I told him that the letter was from me.”

“We were writing letters to German citizens and officials. Like when they lost in Stalingrad, or in Kursk, where they lost a tank battle. At that time I already had a co-worker, warrant-officer Prokopius, he was the deputy of the police chief in Strakonice. When he was on night duty, I would come to him around nine in the evening and we would write letters to a few Germans. To Moravec (a German official in Strakonice who had a Czech name – auth.’s note) in Czech, but there were several letters which I had to translate. Germans were coming to my German boss, and thus I knew German very well, and I had also studied the language before. The purpose of these letters was to make them think about themselves, that when the revolution came, each of them would have to account for what he had done to Czech people. To make them realize that the German army was going downhill and that the war would end in Berlin. The Germans will lose and then there will be a time of reckoning for all who had hurt the Czech nation. I met some of them the day or two after, and from their faces I could tell it probably had some effect on them.”

“One day the captain told me: ´I have a big task for you. I don’t need to remind you that nobody is to know about it, not even a hint is to be let out. It is a task related to a foreign country. We need to get a complete plan of all the buildings in the arms factory, it has to be marked with what is produced where, how many people there are, if there are some detached buildings like a canteen or a kitchen. Everything needs to be in it. The plan is concealed in some place. If you find it, do not wait for the next month and come immediately.´ – ´I will do what I can.´ – ´But you must not get caught.´ On the way back I kept thinking how to do it. My direct superior at work was Mr. Beneš, a Sokol member. He was a chemist and the supervisor of a chromium-plating workshop and he knew that I was involved in something. His silence was absolutely guaranteed, because he was always letting me leave on Saturdays at 1 p. m. to catch a train, while I was supposed to work till 4 p. m. I had to talk to him and I made a plan: ´Mr. Beneš, I have to talk to you today, you need to help me do what I have to do, but I am not allowed to tell you what it is for.´ – ´And what do you need?´ – ´You go to see chief clerk Dvořák, right?´ Dvořák was a civil emergency planning manager for the whole arms factory. ´Yes.´ – ´I need a plan of the factory, and I would like to ask you if you could call an extraordinary chemical evacuation drill in the arms factory, which would take about an hour. You would borrow the plan from the chief clerk, we would agree what time you would be back – and you would lock me in your office. You don’t need a plan, you know all the buildings by heart. You would do your evacuation drill, unlock your office, and I would leave the documents there on the table for you. I would have copied them and put my copy in my pocket. Nobody would suspect anything.´ And so it was. I only know that two or three people were trying the doorknob, but I did not care who it was. The door was locked. Perhaps they came in afterwards. But what mattered was that in the lining of my coat I was carrying this plan to Pilsen. He was immensely happy that he could fulfil this plan. And now he asks me: ´You are not even curious what we shall do with it?´ I had not asked about it, he forbade it. This was undercover work. ´Aren’t you curious what we will do with it? You are young, but I know you through and through, so I will tell you: I have other people as well, just as I have you for Strakonice. Today in the evening or tomorrow morning my Prague messenger is coming, he comes here just as you do. He will get the plan and go with it to the international express train on the route Vienna, Brno, Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg. He will come to this train about half an hour before departure, and look for the man who works as a cook on this express. He will pass him the envelope, it is up to him how he will do it. After that guy’s duty as a cook and waiter is over, he will get off in Hamburg and go to the city. The Vienna – Hamburg route is very long, and the train waits in Hamburg for several hours before departing for its return journey. The guy will meet a man who works for us, in a park, give him the materials, and his task will then be getting this envelope to London to our government.”

“Svatoš got arrested (in Plzeň-Bolevec – auth.’s note) two weeks before the uprising. He endured it, they were beating him terribly, and he did not know what he could and could not say. One day they brought him to his cell, threw him on the floor and the warden was standing above him and said: ´Man, I have never seen anyone withstand what you’ve been through.´ The warden spoke Czech, he was from Vienna. Svatoš remembered him, for he was sometimes bringing him food, there were different wardens on duty. The whole night he kept thinking what to do. He had to do something, because otherwise they would beat him to death. This warden brought him breakfast and Svatoš said he needed to speak to him. The warden nodded, replying that he had to deliver the breakfasts first, then he would come. And he did. Svatoš told him: ´Do you know who I am? I am one of the leaders of an illegal group and I need your help. I will help you, because when it’s over, I will have certain authority. You know that the Russians are in Vienna, another group of Russians is approaching Berlin, the Americans are in Bavaria, so what are you waiting for?´ – ´And what do you want from me?´ – ´I need to know what the Gestapo knows about me. I slowly need to begin confessing something, or they just kill me here!´ – ´I can’t promise anything. I will try and I will come in three days.´ He came and told Svatoš a few things which helped him. Before, Svatoš had been ignoring the Gestapo men, they were beating him and the Gestapo did not learn anything from him. Now they saw that he was willing to confess something. The beating was not so tough anymore, and in two weeks the uprising came. This way he got out of it.”