"... well and then they put me in prison." "Why did they do that?" "Well, that I had overheard some friends in the pub talking about running away, stealing a plance and beer talk like that. Boys like me, some eighteen, nineteen years old... well and then they made some leaflets and other stuff, and my name got mixed up with them somehow, so they took me aswell."
"Where did they take you?" "To Ruzyně." "What about the interrogations, what were they like?" "Well, they were pretty nasty to start with." "Did they beat you?" "No, they didn't beat me, but they woke me up in the night and generally messed around with me, more like psychological beating." "And did they force you to keep walking or stuff like that, that you weren't allowed to sit down in your cell?" "Yeah, exactly that." "And what exactly did they do, what did they tell you to do and not to do, in the cell?" "In the cell, well, I had to keep sitting and I had to be visible to them. When it got dark then I had to have my hands on the blanket all the time, and have my face uncovered." "So you couldn't lie on your side?" "Exactly, had to be on my back all the time, so that numbskull could see you. And the lights were on the whole night, I didn't see sunlight for a good many weeks." "They didn't take you outside for so many weeks?" "Yeah."
"All I know is that a Russian bloke raped a pregnant German next door." "And was she close to..." "Close to childbirth, yeah..." "And he didn't care?" "And the officer shot him by the church." "The Russian officer shot him straight away, did he? You saw that?" "No, but he has a grave there." "The Russian soldier? In Křešice, in the graveyard?" "No, not in the graveyard, in the square there's this memorial, they put him there. They were like, liberator, well, and he was a crook." "That happened in 1945?" "Yeah, that happened in 1945."
"What were you actually convicted for? Did they have to, kind of, make..." "Well, that I was in it aswell." "In the group?" "In the group." "And did they have some actual evidence against you, or did someone just tell on you?" "That I listened to it and that they told on me, yeah." "And that you didn't report it?" "Yeah, exactly... that I should've reported it, tell on them, right? Me tell on them, ha!" "And you admitted overhearing it, admitted knowing about it?" "Well yes, I couldn't deny that, seeing as we had been drinking beer at the one table, and that's where the prattling went on."
"Only later, in 1945, when it was close, then the Germans did this trick, they painted stars on their tanks and planes - like that the Red Army had arrived. Well and so people were standing in the town square, that the liberators had arrived, and then they dropped bombs from the planes." "In the Mělník town square?" "In the square." "And you saw that?" "I saw that with my own eyes."
"And what did the horses do, in the mine?" "They pulled mine carts." "Like, with coal, yes, to a lift?" "To a lift, yeah." "And they were there all the time, those horses?" "Yeah, they were there all the time, they only got taken up once every half year or so." "And how could they even survive?" "Well, they were okay, they had their own stables, lovely." "That's terrible, those animals must have suffered, no?" "No, they had all they needed down there, they were looked after proper, they were so nice, I used to go cuddle them." "And how long did those horses last, how long did they live?" "Well, years and years."
„May no one, not our nation nor the whole world, believe in Communism. It is something so bad, it can‘t be expressed with words. Robbers, murderers, crooks.“
Bohumil Reichelt was born on the 22nd of August 1936 in České Kopisty, district of Litoměřice. His father was a locksmith, but even before the war, he served on ships of the ČSPLO (Czechoslovak Elbe-Oder Boating) on the Děčín-Hamburg route. The family spent the war in Mělník, after that they moved to the father‘s birthplace, Křešice. After completing elementary and middle school, Reichelt decided to start work in the Litvínov mines, where he was promised locksmithing tuition. But those were hollow promises, and so he returned home, doing occassional jobs. He always liked boating though, and so in 1955 he joined a steamer crew, as a stoker. He then moved to a freighter on the Prague-Holešovice route. Once when he was sitting in a pub, he overheard some friends talk about stealing a plane and fleeing to the West. Someone must have told on them, also for making leaflets, and the name Bohumil Reichelt appeared during the interrogation. Thus in November 1955 he was arrested. During the 4-month trial he was held in custody in the Prague-Ruzyně prison. He was sentenced to one year of prison. He spent part of that time in Ruzyně, in solitary confinement, part in Pankrác, and the rest in Vinařice. After his release he was forbidden work in boating. They didn‘t want to employ him anywhere else either, and so his was jobless for four months. In the end, thanks to his father‘s contacts, he was accepted by the Waterworks Constructions, where he could work on small boats. Then he was called to compulsory service, 26 months long at the time. He was stationed with the VTJ (Army Engineering Corps) at Rajhrad, near Brno. After being released from service, Reichelt got married - from this marriage he has a daughter that he is not in contact with. From his second marriage he has a son, Martin. Not even his third, childless marriage lasted. He is currently living by himself in the Day Care Home in Litoměřice. He is happy there, also because of his good relations with his son and granddaughter.
