Karel Vaš

Karel Vaš himself wrote in 1956 that he worked on the case of Píka on the direct request of the then Soviet chargé d´affaires in Prague, agent of the secret service Chazanov. He wrote in the defence in front of the communist authorities which later judged him among other things for murder: “In the meaning of the request of Chazanov I did everything I could, Píka confessed during ten days to the intelligence activity as an agent of an English news service.” Karel Vaš to the quotation: “Yes, it is probably in the application for a renewal, not?! So please, the application for a renewal is formulated so that it suits the time. So some things are true and some things are adapted to the purpose.”

“The high court solved it in a Solomon way. So in this way that I am now here out. The attorney general, not any more attorney, but attorney general, stated that it was badly prosecuted. I was supposed to be charged as a war criminal. There is nothing to be done against it and so it is. So the Institute for Documentation and Examination of the Crimes of Communism had to be left empty-handed.”

“So the contact with the Soviet command was looked after by Reicin (meant the later executed Bedřich Reicin, participant and initiator of many previous political processes in the beginning of 1950s and the feared chief of the defence news service, remark of the author). I for example don´t know at all with whom, I don´t even know the name, at all, where, what! I don´t know at all! I had only contact with the news service authorities, with whom I had to cooperate on business. The higher authorities I didn´t know.”

“Alone, without any company. After all I know the terrain and I studied it on the map. I didn´t have any papers, illegal. I didn´t have any documents with me. I crossed the border with what I had on. When I crossed, I was immediately caught and taken custody on the border by a Soviet border patrol. I presumed that in the Soviet Union of that time I would find asylum. But I was caught, taken custody, held for an illegal barrater of the border. Administratively I was sentenced to three years in a camp, in the gulag behind the Arctic Circle near Vorkuta. There were terrible conditions there, terrible.”

“And I was then taken to Leopoldov. There I was in a terrible company. German criminals, Beran was there and I don´t know who all. Beran was the Prime Minister of the pre-Munich government, politically he was a filth in my opinion. Please, I was then tugged variously and I served nearly six years.” How did the other prisoners behave to you? They knew that you were a former military attorney… “Sure. They beat me up there. Once. Of course there were people there, you will be surprised, former communists, politically active and they were hated. I met there some people who had been sentenced and I had been their attorney, so they beat me up. All right. There were people there.” Will you remember who it was? “Who was it? I don´t know, I don´t remember.” For what were they there? “Well, they were sentenced, I didn´t sentence them, maybe I did, maybe I sued, I don´t know! Indeed according to the law! Please – I found out that many people who were sentenced at that time, in the 1950s, many, I don´t say all – please note – committed real crimes according to the then valid laws. So they were rightly sentenced. And they present themselves today, sorry that I say that, not only as not guilty, but even as heroes! All right, it is their personal feeling. Please!” Who are you talking about now? “Please, don´t want names from me! I can say one thing. I have read their literary work, their confession. One even became an agent of an American intelligence service and oscillated between Bavaria and Czechoslovakia – illegally, he transmitted information, materials. (for example Ota Rambousek, František Zahrádka and others, remark of the author) It means that actually he really performed intelligence service against the regime of then. Well, if he had objections against the regime of then which was then valid, it was his personal thing. Please?! I take due note of it. But according to the law he was not allowed to do it. He did it, so he was sentenced. Maybe he was honoured today.” They were soldiers from the western front of the World War II? “Please, we will not identify them. One in question was honoured, here after 1989 from Havel, personally from Havel! I will now return to what I started with. I was sentenced to a life long penalty. On the basis of the appeal filed to the Supreme Court a renewal was prescribed and I was formally acquitted and rehabilitated. They set me free!”

“I was sure about one thing. Among those who in great numbers crossed Soviet borders, were many who had an anti-Soviet, anti-communist, anti-socialist attitude. They were simply spies from the other side. The Soviet Union had to defend against it in some way. That is why the people who came illegally were simply isolated, sentenced.” You had a right for a defence, didn´t you? “Noo! They didn´t believe it. Their examining authorities, their workers were primitives! They didn´t understand it. I was lucky that I didn´t have a map with me, otherwise they would have sent me to the gulags for longer than just three years. Three years was a minimum. Those who had for example a map with them were administratively sentenced to seven, eight years.” How did you get from the gulag? “I got to know that there was a contract closed between the Soviet government and our exile government and that in the territory of the Soviet Union the Czechoslovak army was being formed. I applied immediately.”

“Well, I did a lot of stupid things due to not-knowing. Due to not-knowing! I did not hurt anybody on purpose. But I did not permit any dirty business in my surroundings!”