Ing. Vladimír Konečný

“The investigation was led by inspector Vladimír Kohoutek. He was reassigned to State Security and transferred to Prague, and I was studying in Prague, and one time, right on Wenceslas Square, I met Kohoutek. The interesting thing is that Kohoutek immediately recognised me, even after several years, and he owned up to me - simply said, we talked together, chatted for a while there on Wenceslas Square. He asked me, for example: ‘How’s the illegal scene in Prague, what’s it like here?’ But that wasn’t an interrogational question, it was a conversational one. I said: ‘Inspector, I’m afraid that what with my studies I don’t have time to bother with things like that.”

“Those were real prison warders there, which is a completely different category of people than those with basic education. The regulations required they had to have at least upper primary education, some of them didn’t. They had some kind of catch-up classes there, and they were preparing to complete their education, so when they found out I was a student, and that I was to take my graduation exam - my cell turned into a classroom. They took turns there days on end, at least I had something to do, so I didn’t just stare at bars in the window.”

“The bell rang at the door, Mum went open it, there was a town cop standing there: ‘We need Vláďa to come with us. We’re going to sort out some Germans in one cellar!’ I had the keys to that cellar, we had our own cellar with coal next to theirs. So I unlocked the cellar, we climbed inside. Vojtěchovský was armed with one petty 6.35mm pistol. So we jumped them with this peashooter, stood them up to the wall, destroyed the communications equipment, that was the main thing, and then we held them captive.”