Antonie Šulistová

"I can tell you one more story. My mother wrote several applications for a pardon, as they used to say. Our aunt worked at the Hluboká castle as a guide. Other than that, it was always a presidential residence. When a president came, I remember Zápotocký for one, he stayed there. My mother said, 'Oh, I'll go there.' See, my aunt told her where, which direction, and when he usually went for a walk. So, there was me and I think my youngest sister, but I don't remember exactly. All I know was I was leading this Pioneer bicycle or what, and my mother and I were walking. We could see Zápotocký walking there with one of his henchmen a little behind him. Mum went over to him and told him, and he just said, 'Well, let me write it down.' Of course he didn't do anything when she told him she had so many children back home. Nothing happened, of course."

"My father was contacted by two men, one named Kaska, the other Mašek, who were people traffickers. They first came to my dad saying that they had received a tip and wanted him to bring them to Prague. My father didn't have a car, so he went to his brother with them and he promised to drive them there; he took it as a job, as business. They agreed on that. I just remember as a child that one of them slept at our place and the other one slept with my uncle Václav. Then they took them to Prague but they didn't want to go all the way to Prague, and then they came back. Later, they contacted them again; first assuming they were going by bus and he (dad) would drive. Then they changed their minds, they didn't like it somehow, and that was the end of it. That was maybe back in '51, I guess; and then they got caught. I don't believe they really remembered all the details; they must have had it written down somewhere - who gave them what and who gave them a drink, so to speak. So the police gradually started to pick up these people. It was quite a big case. It was worse than a murderer murdering somebody back then. Nobody cared that he (dad) had a family and six kids, not at all. He was on trial for treason. That meant the biggest sentences and no chance of any early release."