"Now how many people did I take over the border line, how many people I have warned to be careful behind the border and to watch out for the StB officers. Those were the questions they were asking me during my questioning. And I got beaten up too. I better not...That´s my business. The main thing is that I have survived and that I didn´t tell on anyone. I couldn´t anyway, because I didn´t know anyone from our group. All of a sudden they told me I was part of this group. They also told me the name, but I forgot it. I kept saying: ´I don´t know anyone and I never met anyone...´"
"After several interrogations, I was finally at my last one. They hit me twice. I just fell down on the floor and slept. When I came around I heard: ´Will you speak or not? ´ - ´I have nothing to talk about.´ - ´Tell him not to sleep.´ So I got hit again so hard that I lost consciousness completely. I don´t remember anything. They dragged me out of there and threw me back into my cell. As I touched the ground I heard the guard: ´Take care of him.’ I stayed on the floor crying. I had a terrible headache. The boys’ didn´t know what to do so they knocked on the door and told the guard they need to call the doctor. They locked the door and after a while the doctor - also prisoner - came in. He examined me and said: ´ It´ a severe concussion.´"
"When they took us from the court, they were separating us into the cells. One of them said: ´Jarmara, you go to the second floor. Cell number this and that.´ So I went there. I was looking for the right cell. Then I saw the red circle! I thought: ´Oh my God! That´s not possible! Death sentence! I´m not supposed to be here I only got the life imprisonment.´ So I was just standing there until the screw came and unlocked the door. Then some prisoner appeared on the first floor and asked me: ´What are you waiting for? ´ I told him I don´t know. Then he said: ´You´re waiting for your punishment - the death sentence. You see? You have the red sign here.´ His name was František Teuner. He was a former member of the Protectorate youth collaborator organization during the WWII. We could talk to each other like this. Nobody watched us anymore. He said: ´Don´t worry, I´ve been here for over a year now waiting also for the death sentence to be carried out. And they still don´t want me.´ I was shocked: ´A year? ´ I think I can handle that, I thought to myself. But just as I said that the guard came and opened the door and pushed me in. ´That´s it, ´ I thought. They only tricked me, they said a life imprisonment, but I got the death sentence. But then next morning the door opened and I heard: ´Jesus, we put you into the wrong cell. You´re not supposed to be here.´ I was so glad. Then I moved into regular cell."
"When I was working in the carpentry workshop, my boss sent me once to the detention section. It used to be one the worst sections there. There was just beating and nothing else. If you got in there you could either bear it or be brought out by others. I was supposed to install the sills under the door there. I was just installing one of them when the beating squad came across the corridor. I looked at them and I was shocked: ´Oh my God! That is my brother. That is my brother! ´ He was tied up in iron hand cuffs from his neck to his feet, so he could barely walk. Jesus! I couldn´t believe what I saw there. I used to be beaten too, but I felt so sorry for him, because he couldn´t fight back. His hands and feet were tied up, iron chain all over him - he could do nothing."
"We were occupying the common cells where the senior officers and generals located. I knew them all - Janoušek, Pelich or Bulandr. When we had a good guard who didn´t watch us closely, we always set together and had some kind of session. There we heard about the army stuff and the life in the army; or the priests; that was interesting too. If we got two unpeeled potatoes for dinner, we ate them with the skin on. From the priests we (the young ones) got a lot of food. They always had food for us. Once they gave to this man, the next time they gave to another man. I know they would have eaten all five of the potatoes, but they were very brave. They all were bishops..."
"Later I was called by an StB officer for an interview in Děčín. They needed to check what kind of people they had. I led some anti communist conversation which they didn´t like so they kept whispering to each other about something. After about an hour they told me: ´You're free to go now. But you must not say HONOUR TO WORK when you leave. ´ I turned around and said: ´And what else should I say then? You don´t hear anything else than this greeting.´ one of the officers in plain clothes told me: ´Get the hell out of here! ´ So I said: ´Alright. Thank you and God bless.´ After this I expected something bad to happen."
Mr. Jaromír Jarmara was born in 1923 in Třeština, near Mohelnice. After the events of February of 1948, being a frontier guard, he was in contact with lieutenant Voborský who cooperated with the resistance group called „Praha-Žatec“ (Prague - Žatec). This group intended to overthrow the communist dictatorship using a military coup. Jaromír Jarmara used to pass them information about people from the West who cooperated with the StB. (StB - former secret state police - translator´s note) Unfortunately this group was revealed and Mr. Jarmara was arrested. Later, on March 2nd 1949 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The original verdict was the death sentence and some of the Třeština citizen didn´t hesitate to sign it. Mr. Jarmara spent nearly ten and a half of years in miserable life conditions, specifically in Pankrác, Bory, Leopoldov and in Valdice prisons. During these years he met many of the famous people such as Colonel Karel Lukas or General Karel Janoušek and other officials. Also his brother, Věroslav Jarmara, was arrested because of political problems. While in Leopoldov prison, Jaromír Jarmara married his girlfriend, Svatava, on behalf of his father. She was dismissed immediately from her work however and couldn´t find another job for a few years. After Mr. Jarmara´s release, they returned to his home town. The local inhabitants‘ didn´t welcomed him though and he even could get any job there. He even had to face the threats of new imprisonment for parasitism. Finally he got job at the MEZ factory in Postřelmov. He got the worst job there and was under permanent supervision by the director. Even his kids experienced many problems including admittance to their school. Today Mr. Jarmara lives in Hrabová.
