Helena Nováková

“My parents asked for my pardon. ´Kléma´ (President Klement Gottwald) obviously turned it down. I was lucky later, when ´Kléma´ died and was succeeded by the ´big-eared torpedo´ Zápotocký I was pardoned. So I spent seven years of my sentence behind the bars.”

“The gatekeeper called me that I should come down to the entrance; somebody was waiting there for me. I looked around the office, said good-bye, took my personal belongings and left. The ´603´ car was waiting for me, they told me to get in. I asked them to stop in our place, so that I could at least go in and grab my toothbrush. Obviously they did not allow me to change, and when I needed to use the toilet I had to leave the door open and they were standing next to me. But they did not harm me. I was in Blažkova Street, it was nicknamed Laufrovka. There was the ´interrogation cell.´ I spent several days there.”

“The weather was warm, I was going sleeveless and so they started demanding ´časy´(´times´). First they asked me my name, wanted me to write it down, but I did not know the Cyrillic, so I wrote it in Czech, in block letters. They were deciphering it, then they noticed my ´times´ (watch), and they wanted them. They started to unfasten them from my wrist and kept saying: ´Davaj.´ (Give.) There was nothing I could do, they were armed, I was afraid.”

“Then I was brought to the court prison. There was a guardswoman, an old lady, Mrs. Růženka, and she would say: ´Girls, we have no idea how to treat you, we are used only to whores and thieves here.´”

“They came to me during the break and said: ´On the May Day, you must walk in the parade.´ I replied: ´I don’t have to, I can, but I do not have to.´ - ´Fine.´ Mrs. Pařízková then tells me: ´Ms., they are writing something down.´ And I said: ´But this does not concern me, they are just writing down the names of the people who will put those red rags around their necks and go walk in the parade.´ Nothing happened. It was on Friday, then on Saturday we did not work, and on Monday I come to work and the gatekeeper tells me: ´Ms., you are to report to the State Police.´”

“Then I had to go to listen to the ´announcements.´ They were reading us our sentences and what we were sentenced for. He was announcing the sentence to a guy who was in front of me, saying: ´The prosecution requests triple hanging.´ And I stared at him and kept pondering just how they would carry it out. Binding three pieces of rope together? At that moment I thought it was great irony. He ordered him to leave, started to read my sentence and added: ´And the same applies to you as well.´”