Štěpán Kaňák

"I was imprisoned in the 1951. I was at a carpentry school in Bruntál, I came home in June and then I worked for Mr. Kozelka in Frýdlant as an apprentice. And as apprentices do, I also went for snacks. Once I went to get a snack for the men, and when I came back with the snacks, two men in leather coats stood at the door and said, 'Give them the snacks and you'll come with us.' Master Mr. Kozelek stood in the doorway, looking at me in horror. So, I handed out snacks and went. They took me home first. Mom had just left somewhere and the house was locked. And I got up through the barn, unlocked it, and let the comedians in. And then they interrogated me. They wanted to know the name of some secretly ordained bishop, but I didn't know anything about it at all. Mom came home and was horrified at what was happening. They told her they would just ask me something and that it would be fine. But I didn't want to tell them anything, because I didn't even know that there had already been secretly ordained priests, so they told my mother that they would take me away, but that I might be back for my birthday. It was September 7th, my birthday is 16th. My mother saw me again in a year and a half."

"We went there [to Hájek] in the autumn of 1949 and on April 13 they took over us. The State Security officers came with submachine guns and raided the monastery. They started banging on the gate and the doorman went to ask the superior if he should open it. And a whole bunch of the State Security officers, and I think they were militiamen with submachine guns too, raided the monastery. We had to get up at night and gather in the refectory, that was the room where we ate. And there they asked us, the young people if we wanted to go. Maybe they wouldn't arrest us, maybe they would let us go, but we said we would go with the superiors. So, they loaded us to a bus. We didn't know where they were taking us. And they brought us to Hejnice. It was a Franciscan monastery that was no longer very busy. They took us there."