Václav Vlček

“Dad did not like to remember the Domeček (‘Little House’), where he had spent eight weeks. He said that they were mostly tortured psychically, by threats that their families would be destryoed, and they were being denied sleep. A 1000 Watt light bulb was kept on in the cell for the whole night and the warden was waking them up every thirty minutes. The prisoner had to say his name and do ten knee-bends. All-night interrogation sessions took place on a number of nights. For the rest of his life, dad considered the chimes from the nearby Loreta church repulsive. The psychic terror culminated in a midnight march through the dark Prague, when dad was followed by the prison commander Pergl and Šváb, who walked behind him with armed guns and dad expected that they would shoot him as a run-away. They walked all the way to the ministry of national defence where dad had his office.”

“They stepped on his glasses and broke them and dad was thus unable to read. On the following day they brought him a protocol and told him that he would be released because the accusations against him could not be proven. Mistakenly rejoicing, dad signed the protocol and only several weeks later he found out that it was actually a confession. At home I often asked my mom where dad was and she kept telling me that he was away traveling. Only one autumn evening she told me in tears that he was in prison. He was mostly interned in the prison in Prague-Pankrác, and we were allowed to go there for ten-minute visits, every three months, I think. The room for visitors was large and dismal and the prisoners were separated from us by a strong triple grey fence. In the corner of the room there was a notice board which all visitors read. I asked mom what was written there. She replied that the notice said: Today, the following persons were executed…”