“That was what they were saying when they made Sokol into a physical education unity, put in all kinds of cops and people who couldn't even train. The Boy Scout was canceled and turned into a Youth Union. And those interests! One had to go to lectures, sing songs: Awake, brothers, comrades ... It didn't bother me. I was interested in mountains, skiing. ”
“What was on those leaflets? Death of Communism. And there were such gallows, a string, a head like that. It had hands and legs and it said: Death to the Communists. And below that was the title: Vote the national side. That was just before the election. We always threw it somewhere inconspicuously or rolled it up and stuck it behind the fence. But there was a jerk there, and he just scattered it. Or shoving it into the boxes. A state police assistant or confident stared from each window. One saw him, looked at the leaflet, and nearly fell down to the ground.”
“We got kicked around a lot in Leopoldov. There was one red-haired Jano. He came, opened our cell, kicked me in the knee and butt, and left again. And Stefan, he was such a long blond. He had blue or green eyes, a fish face. He came and slapped me so badly that I fell to the ground. There was nothing in the cell, just a blanket, a wooden floor. It was hard there.” - “Was that still a remand prison?” - “Yes. I was there for six months in solitary confinement. I wasn't allowed to sit down, I had to keep walking all the time. Then I found out that they walked around the cells every five minutes and always looked through the spying eye to monitor if we were walking. One guy hanged himself there. We heard a racket, a noise, crying for help. They ran down the floors and pulled him out. We didn't know, we just heard the noise running up the hallways around the door. In the middle was such a hole on the gallery. There were sieves in case anyone wanted to jump down so they wouldn't hurt themselves.”
Jaroslav Březovják was born on May 4, 1932 in Pržno, Vsetín. His father was a bricklayer, but he got a job at the Bata company and the family moved to Zlín. The witness was a scout, practicing in Sokol. When the Communists came to power in February 1948 and the Scout and Sokol organisations were banned, he began distributing anti-Communist leaflets with his friends. In the spring of 1950, part of the group was betrayed. For fear of being arrested, he tried to escape to Austria, but was arrested by soldiers at the border. He was imprisoned, beaten and interrogated in Leopoldov for half a year. He said nothing about the leaflets. He said he was going to Africa to hunt elephants and tigers. He was sentenced for fourteen months unconditionally for his illegal leave. He had to work hard the rest of his sentence in the Jáchymov uranium mines. He suffered two work injuries and had health problems all his life.
