Petr Tomíšek

* 1953

  • "[My brother] and I met in the hallway when they led me to the interrogation x times. I wrote my mom letters why the idiot wouldn't bring me at least vitamins - oranges, lemons. He tried to isolate himself completely because he was afraid he would be fired. Then his wife, my sister-in-law, told me that he had not been promoted for two years because of me. I was quite happy about it, mischievously. But it happened to me, for example, that I was in custody in a cell with two others, and they went to court every day. One was in custody for five years and the other for three years - the regime was really great at the time. So, I was left alone in the cell, which is not allowed, because you could hang yourself. So, they always moved me somewhere else. But when one of those drinkers served, he left me there because he believed me, and on the contrary he came and said, 'Don't you want to take a bath, take a shower? If you're Ivan's brother. "There were people who took it a little differently."

  • "People were taking terrible drugs in Prague at that time. For example, dissolved Algena filtered through cotton wool, into a vein. I've never done this. Never any drugs. Nevertheless, I have a verdict that I am a polymorphic drug addict. Because the forensic experts, Mr. and Mrs. Slavík, were coming to see me in custody at Ruzyně and said, 'So, are you taking morphine?' And I say, 'I'm not taking anything.' 'Don't say you're not taking morphine!' I say, 'Fuck you, why are you trying this on me here? I've never done it, I've never taken any pills, leave me alone.' - 'So, you want to go to Bohnice to a closed pavilion? For a month, for two? I was quite scared of that because I heard about it. It was actually for convicts, and it wasn't pleasant. So, I started talking to them politely, but I definitely never told them that I did something I didn't do. That's bullshit."

  • "They came to work for me, and they gave me a choice of several crimes. I could choose to subvert the republic, an incitement to riot or spread drugs and poisons. A major came by, whose name was Řepka, I don't know his first name, and he said, 'Look, you can do whatever you want, we won't let you out of here. Here you can choose according to the extent of the penalty.´ I'm not kidding. They just had no proof. There was a house search, they came with a schnauzer and they had a sample of a Marijuana. To a neighbor who was at home, I said, 'Kateřina, take a good look at where they put it, because I have nothing here. And if anything is found, it's theirs. Look, they're giving a sample over there, so the dog knows what to look for.' My mom came from work unexpectedly. She was devastated because of what was happening there. So, I asked if I could calm her down. They said yes, so I sat down next to her and whispered to her to go to Žleby to my grandfather's and grandmother's house and destroy the typewriter and all the papers she could find there. I managed to tell her that, and then I learned from her when I got out of the prison, that she had the machine scrapped, which was quite consistent - it didn't occur to me, I thought she would just take it away somewhere."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 26.04.2018

    (audio)
    délka: 01:56:56
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Praha, 04.01.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:23:32
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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Doctor, advise, my son is free-minded!

Petr Tomíšek (circa1978)
Petr Tomíšek (circa1978)
zdroj: archive of the witness

Petr Tomíšek was born on July 29, 1953 in Prague into a working class family. In high school, he met a group of people who professed underground culture. After a well-known political trial with The Plastic People of the Universe, he became acquainted with the narrowest core of dissent. He helped with the distribution of samizdat publications, participated in alternative culture events, played in an underground band. In 1979, he signed Charter 77, for which he was immediately expelled from university. A year later, he was arrested and sentenced to nine months in prison under the pretext of spreading drugs, most of which he spent in custody in Prague‘s Ruzyně. After returning from prison, he had various manual occupations and started a family, but was still persecuted. The secret police repeatedly tried to get him to cooperate - without success. In the late 1980s, he became involved in the Civil Liberties Movement. After the revolution, he worked briefly in communal politics, later becoming an editor and publishing his own magazine.