"There I found a little water in a jug. Was a French toilet, with steps, you know, there is water that we could scoop. There I cleaned myself. I stayed there until the next day, or the like. Day and night I was there, yeah, two days. Because it was Sunday, and Monday they took me from that solitary confinement to the office for examination. Then they put me among other prisoners. Whit women I was 5 or 6 of us in the same room. We slept on the ground on two string beds and we slept there three. And another two on 2 beds, that were on the wall. So we slept there. Anyone was there. Religious and ateists, you had to know it anyway. Even religion, and everything. Time were. Then she came before Christmas we enjoyed, there was also Mistríková [Slovak Celebrity]. "
"We knew just that the execution was taking place, so we got up later. And we heard the walking. Because before execution it was so ... even when we went outside, a couple times a week on the quarter-hour and on the four corners were guards and we walked in those rounds. Who couldn't walk, walked in small circle, then larger and then large circle. So there we walked in that circle. And when they hanged we could still heard the walking in circles. And that, so hi head, that he was conscious. So we knew that it was it. Because we were not allowed to look from the window. Correction immediatelly. We made sure to not go to correction. It is like a room in the basement, dark room where there is only carpet on the floor. They give you only black coffee and nothing more. Fathers bishops how many there were... Once he gave me the blessing of the Bishop, Spiš bishop, Vojtaššák. That's right. He just arrived in January. Eleven months I was there. So he came in January '51 and they judged him."
"So the water went there like that. So we could catch it. There was one washbasin. They brought one pot of water, so little they could. When we three there was small pot, when we were six greater pot. Inmates, they handed it out and that was all you had for all. For drinking and washing. What remained of the watering pots, it got hot in the summer. So little remained, we have to put in washbasin. My inmates told me that I went to wash myself first so that I took water from the pod. they then took from it as well. I brought it to them. Grandma, she was weak, so we washed all of hers. This is how we caught the water and how we did with it.
Every two weeks for 50 crowns you could buy. It has been determined what you could buy. To eat jam, bread. Then what else? Jam, onion, when it was summer. And then hygienic, you know what, we could buy. And they sent money to us from home. To the office. We did not have money. But the office wrote, what we can buy."
Sister Almira Maria Strakova, was born on 08/12/1923 in Mutne, Orava region. She was the oldest child of religous family of Anton and Johana. When she was twenty years old she applied to join the Congregation of Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent - Satu Mare, but could not enter the religious order until after the World War II. A year after the war, she adopted the religious garments, and entered the novitiate. Since 1947 she worked as a cook in a boys‘ dorm of the teaching academy in Banovce nad Bebravou. Here, on suspicion of encouraging public unrest and sedition, she was on June 3, 1950 arrested. From Banovce nad Bebravou she was transferred to custody in Nitra and Bratislava. She remained in custody for 11 months. She was then released from custody for lack of evidence. After her release she tried to get back to the Congregation and therefore she spent two years working with sisters in Banská Štiavnica under a different name. Since 1953 she worked in Pohorelska Masa as a nurse with mentally disabled children. Here she worked until 1981, when she comes to Vrícko, where she helps in the construction of Charity House for sisters. Even in her last years she helped as cook. The last months of her life she spent confined to bed. Up to this time, she spoke about her experiences in prison. She died 18 November 2014 in Vricko.
