Josef Ouroda

“I applied for parole. At work, they gave me good reference I could say. Then this warden came and said: 'Come with me.' But they wouldn't say where they would be taking you. And all of a sudden I was there with the director. I came to his office, there were two men, State Security men obviously. They said: 'Comrade director, could you leave us for a moment?' And: 'Mr Ouroda, would you like some coffee?' I told them we were not allowed to drink coffee, as coffee was banned in prisons back then. 'Well that's for us to decide. Comrade, make us three coffees! We have heard that they gave you good reference at your workplace, so you will be going home soon, most probably. And we are not forcing you but... we need you to cooperate... but we don't have to...' My mother was seriously ill, so I was thinking I would promise them to do that so they would let me out. But in the end I changed my mind. I even asked them: 'So should I just go to see the director and tell him?' - 'No. you will report to a warden and to the Internal Section workers. And they will take care of it.' The Internal Section was this internal police. And I didn't report to them. And there was a parole hearing – and they denied my parole. They stated that I needed to serve the full sentence so that I would adopt habits of a decent working man. And this Dr Vojáček signed that.”