We still held the hope that the regime would collapse
Stáhnout obrázek
Václav Růžička was born in Kácov, his father was an entrepreneur. He was arrested in February 1950, during his studies at the high school, just before the graduation exam, and sentenced to 13 years of forced labor in camps at the Jáchymov area. He finally served ‘only‘ seven years of his sentence and was released in 1958. He spent the majority of his sentence in the central camp and in Nikolaj. After the release he worked in several positions in the construction industry. In 1968, he was dismissed from the position of a foreman and he found a maintenance job at the Konopiště castle. He belongs to the organizers of informal meetings of former political prisoners and people connected with the group escape from Horní Slavkov (including Karel Kukal). Meetings are held annually each July in Český Šternberk, the meeting in 2006 was the thirteenth. Václav Růžička also worked at the Český Šternberk castle, where he met with the earl of Šternberk, who holds the patronage over the meetings since the 1990s. Nowadays, Václav Růžička lives in Kácov.
