“It was that they [communists] were creating this atmosphere of fear and all people were affected by fear and they were only doing and saying what they were allowed to. And nobody dared to do anything beyond that. I thought that this was absolutely impossible. I am a free person, in a free country, and so I can say what I want and live how I want, can’t I? I considered it totally perverted to speak something completely different at home and then in the public in front of people. My parents have experienced the political court trials of the 1950s and I think that their generation was influenced by that so much that they were then really afraid to speak the truth in the public. Although dad did not like it [the practices of the communist regime], he still kept saying to me: ‘Drahuška, please, be careful so that you don’t get into trouble.’ Well, I was not careful anyway, they were telling me already when I was a little girl that I was stubborn, and so I was stubborn in this matter as well, and well, that’s what it came to…”
“About two months after my husband was in detention pending trial in the Bohunice prison, they charged me. It was in 1980. They were then investigating me for the criminal act of sedition, of course. I was being summoned to Znojmo all the time, or there were also times when they did not send any notice and they just arrived for me and took me by force. Honzík [my son] was not going to school yet, and so they took me and him together to the infamous ‘krajzák’ building in Znojmo [the head office of the StB at that time]. They interrogated me in Honzík’s presence. He was not even six years old, and he started having psychic problems later as a result of that. They played games with us. They would ask me something, then leave the room and they would let us wait there for one hour, for instance, and then come back again. There were six of them in the room. In all the corners of the room. I was sitting there and I had Honzík with me and one day his reaction was that he started yelling at them. I don’t remember what he was shouting. And Mirka [daughter] was at school in Strachotice at that time. And they told me that if did not tell them what they wanted, because I refused to answer, that they would keep me there. I told them that it was fine, but that my daughter was at school and that I needed to pick her up. They said that they would take care of that. I replied that they could, but in that case I would accuse them of kidnapping the child, because I did not give them my permission to pick my daughter from school. They eventually let us go, but this time, when they took me to their office together with Honzík, was one of the worst interrogations. I somehow managed, but the child was not managing it, you know... And that’s what troubled me most about it, that on top of that they were damaging the children, in the psychical way…”
“You must be kidding… (laughing). No, you would make me laugh, nobody apologized to me. But some of them are so honest that they greet me at first, but some don’t even greet me and they pretend that they don’t know me. You know what, I didn’t forget, although I would be happy to erase all those events from my memory. But I did forgive those people, and I forgave them because of myself. Because if I did not forgive them, then it would harm me and my health. So I forgave them and I accept it and I regard it that they were doing what they were doing for themselves and because they were scared. They were scared for themselves, for their children and families. Well, fine. They were scared, I was not scared. At that time I always said to myself: You have to be strong, and what does not kill you will empower you. And today, after all thus, if I look back, and not only at the political events, but at the private and family matters, today I think that everything probably happened the way it was supposed to happen.”
Drahomíra Šinoglová was born on July 27, 1951 in Stošíkovice in the Znojmo region into a working-class family. Her father was a member of the Communist Party and even though he disagreed with the practices of the regime, he defended the communists ideas and he believed in their fulfillment in the future. Since her young age, Drahomíra was refusing to bow down to the atmosphere of fear and lack of freedom, which the totalitarian regime was instilling in the society. She and her husband Jan later began participating on copying and dissemination of texts of literary works from the edition Petlice, which were blacklisted at that time. Based on indirect evidence, the court sentenced her to one year of imprisonment for preparation of the crime of sedition. During her arrest, policemen forcibly tore her half-year son, who was still being breastfed, from her arms. Media abroad reported about her story. Drahomíra Šinoglová became the only political prisoner during the era of president Husák who was granted a presidential pardon. From 1977 until 1989 she and her family faced continuous pressure by the StB.
