Vladimír Bohata

"When the meeting ended and all the employees came to their workplaces, they came to me with stubborn accusations that I did not attend the meeting and that I was the only one. They saw it as a political act, and the then union president insisted that I be expelled, fired, and so on. The master and his deputy, the master Mr. Cerveny and his deputy Marek, wanted to slow it down. Not that I was an excellent worker, but I was a good worker, they wanted me to stay there. But Diviš asserted that I was forced to leave the shipyard in about three weeks. "

"Then, after a while, I noticed that Mr Slánský had disappeared, he did not appear. Then even a little later ... but when I asked about it, nobody knew anything. After a while, Captain Trapl, who was his personal protector, while we were in a group guarding his travels or his stay, was also lost."

"And suddenly I stopped hearing the sounds of footsteps in the sandy corridor, and I thought something was wrong. And indeed. Mr. Slánský shouted at me: "Comrade!" So I turned around and he began to scold me as if I didn't know what was appropriate behaviour. I say: 'Mr Slánský, of course, I know this, and I apologize, but I will try to explain it to you. If you remember, about a week ago we met in this park under similar circumstances. I greeted you, and you did not answer me, nor did you respond to it. I saw that you are very thoughtful, deep in yourself, as if you have some worries. That's why this time I thought it would be better not to disturb you, so that's why I missed you this way. 'Mr. Slánský smiled a little and then surprised me by saying,' Let's take a walk. ' Then we walked together through the park for about half an hour, we had a very pleasant discussion. Mr Slánský spoke little or almost nothing about himself. But he asked me about something - about my parents, how satisfied I was with him at work and more and more, what my father was doing, and so on. I told him everything. He listened to everything carefully and after a while, we said goodbye very friendly. "

"So I got to Korunovační Street in Dejvice, where the then secretary of the party, Rudolf Slánský, was based. We still went there one by one and the same, thus almost "family conditions" were created there. Mrs Slánská gave birth to a small child at that time, so the pram was standing in the backyard. The hired girl who was a babysitter was guarding the pram because Mrs Slánská had other tasks. And we saw little of Slánský, because he left for work early in the morning and returned late in the evening, sometimes at night. But I, when I met him, I perceived him as a very nice, nice gentleman, but quite withdrawn. "