Leo Žídek

"The worst conditions were in the region of Jáchymov, in particular in the mines Bratrství, Nikolaj and Mariánská. One of the commanders with the worst reputation was a guy nicknamed 'paleček'. Although I didn't work there, I heard several stories about people who were shot there and later, it was asserted that it had been a runaway attempt. Before the regime there was relaxed, the inmates had to work even on the Sundays. Later, the conditions eased up a bit. In Slavkovsko, the worst camp was the so-called 'Dvanáctka'. There was an escape from that camp but also betrayal by one of the fugitives because he came back to the camp. Only two of the fugitives survived – one of them still lives in Ostrava today, his name is Zdeněk Štich. He was caught and brutally beaten up. He couldn't walk and lost his memory. I learned about him from stories. He's a member of the Ostrava branch of the Confederation of political prisoners. I worked in the Svatopluk and Prokop mines."

"My term was due in 1960. In May, there was a general amnesty at the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the end of WWII. The amnesty partly covered also political prisoners. I regained my civil rights and I was summoned to compulsory military service. Being in the army had a great advantage – the conditions there were much more benevolent and I could freely exchange letters with my family. Every now and then, they were allowed to visit me as well."

"After they prevented me from taking part in the school-leaving exam, one functionary from the grammar school told me that I could apply again next year if I changed my opinions. I didn't accept his offer and went to work. At that time every citizen had to be employed and so I worked at the Czechoslovak construction works. After half a year, I left and started to work for Stavoprojekt as an assistant land surveyor. I was measuring the plots for suburban blocks of flats that were to be built in Ostrava-Poruba, which was at that time still a rural area with plenty of fields and fertile land. I was thinking about my future. I wanted to study but I wasn't allowed to. Anyway, I wasn't too keen on studying Marxism-Leninism which I didn't agree with."

"Me and a colleague, we were the first ones to be arrested. It was shortly after that meeting. Some were arrested on the train, others in the places where they lived. We were interrogated for the first time in Brno. The cells were located in the vaults, on the corner of the Bratislavská Street and Příčná Street. About two weeks later, they escorted us to Ostrava where we spent the first couple of days at the police directorate (close to the Krajská prison) – the location of the cells for the people who were in custody. I didn't have to attend a great deal of the interrogations since I told the interrogators everything they wanted to know about me right in the beginning. This proved to be an advantage since they already knew about my activities. I came to the conclusion that denial was pointless. The worst for me was the psychological suffering. There were hardly any walks outside of the prison. I remember that we were granted only two walks on the prison inner yard during the whole time. We spent the entire time on the cell."

"When we were released from prison, we were told to apply for a job either in a mine or in a steel mill. I didn't want to work in a mine or a mill anymore. A classmate who worked at the traffic department of the regional committee in Ostrava found me a job as a tile setter in the national company Silnice (Roads). I applied for the job and was hired instantly – it was hard work. I stayed there till 1965 except for two years when I was passing my compulsory military service. I also completed my secondary education, passed the school-leaving exam at a school in Ostrava in 1964 and spent one more year with the tile layers. I didn't want to study university since I followed the principle no to ask anything of the regime because I didn't want the regime to ask me for a favor in return. I didn't want to collaborate. Instead, I signed up for a course in computer programming."

"I badly wanted to study at the Stuttgart University but unfortunately, it was to the west of our national border. Therefore, it was really hard to get there. Our regime prevented people from going to the countries of Western Europe. The regime didn't want people to go to those states that allowed for a free existence. The frontiers were sealed almost seamlessly. The border was heavily guarded by the border guards. The local people would inform the police and the border patrol if they spotted a stranger close to the border. There were people who acted like traffickers, taking people across the border. I had a couple of acquaintances that I sensed were of a distinctly anti-regime character and were engaged in activities against the regime. I befriended them and asked them to help me with the border crossing. I naively thought that I could make it across the border in the trunk of a western embassy's diplomatic car. However, reality was different and I was introduced to two illegal workers. I was supposed to meet them on August 18, 1952, in Brno. We agreed that they would help me to cross the border about a week after our meeting. There were several other people present at the meeting. But only the two of us wanted to escape abroad. Just minutes after the end of the meeting, I was arrested together with one more participant of the meeting."

"In June, 1953, I was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment, the deprivation of my civil rights and my freedom. We were 11 convicts in total. In the morning, we got to know the indictment and in the afternoon, we already learned the verdict. The highest sentence was 15 years. Most of the convicts were sentenced for high treason. The usual sentence for this was 10 years to life imprisonment. Because I was close to juvenile age, I got a lower sentence. There were even lower sentences, 1,5 years for instance. One woman was released after the custody. After the trial, we were sent off to various labor camps and prisons. Me and a friend, we ended up in a uranium mine – he worked above the ground and I worked underground in the Barbora III shaft. That was in Svatopluk (Horní Slavkov). That's where I became a qualified miner after two days and two hours of on-the-job training. The basic rule was to be careful – those who followed this rule and managed to be careful survived the mines."

"After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the newspapers were full of lists of those Czechs who had been executed in its wake. One of the assassins, NCO Josef Valčík, who shot himself in Resslova Street after the assassination, had relatives in Smolina near Valašské Klobouky. Before the assassination of the Heydrich, he is said to have visited the village. Therefore, the village was in danger of the same fate as Lidice. They deported a couple of the families to concentration camps. At the end of the war, Romanian and Russian armies passed through the villages. There were no exchanges of fire."

"The state-organized parades that took place on May the 1st were compulsory. You were forced to show up there and if you didn't, your reputation suffered. In the region of Ostrava, the parades and processions took place at the same time as the celebrations of the liberation from the Nazis. Everybody had to fly a flag out of the windows. The regime minions went to every flat the before the parade in order to check if there was a flag hanging from the window. In the 1980s, I bought some flags of Great Britain, France and the United States. I put them right next to the flag of the Soviet Union but surprisingly, I didn't get into trouble for flying the flags of the capitalist powers next to the Soviet flag. The teachers talked their students into taking part in the parades and at some schools, the female teachers had to wear a red scarf. However, most of them removed them as soon as they had passed the tribunes. The directors and leading employees invited the common workers to participate in the processions, they marched in the front lines and chanted 'hurray' to the politicians standing on the tribunes. When I worked for the traffic construction works, I intentionally walked on the right-hand side of the procession because the left-hand side had to pass the tribune. I remained silent for the duration of the parade. On May, the 1st, we used to get fruits from the south, just like on Christmas. In Prison, May the 1st was a day off."