Monsignor Vnislav Fruvirt

“At first there was interrogation, then there was the prison in Znojmo, then the district prison, it was in Cejl, and when the court session was over, they took us to other prisons again. And at that time, I don’t know how the policemen or communists decided on that... many priests were in labour prisons, where the regime was a bit more relaxed, and they assembled all of them into closed prisons. The priests who were sentenced to ten years of imprisonment were thus all sent to Mladá Boleslav, and those who had a sentence over ten years and more, were sent to Mírov. There were about 180 of us there, the whole prison was occupied. They transported us to Valdice, I don’t know for how many years. Then I went to work as a miner. I am a miner, who is more? You know that slogan. I was there for about a year and three months or so, in the East Bohemian Coal Mining area. Black coal is mined in eastern Bohemia, too. Then I returned to Valdice again, and I learnt the glass-cutter’s trade there and in 1960 I went home from Valdice.” – “What did you produce there?” – “Pendants for chandeliers, there was a glass-cutting workshop. The glass-cutting industry from the border region. The boss taught us the trade and we were cutting glass there. I was processing the tiniest pendants, the were pear-shaped like this… I don’t remember how many facets there were … eight, three times eight around the whole piece. So when you started cutting it, your fingers were cut through.”

“Well, I was thinking about getting a job. I enjoyed driving and all that, and so I applied to the Transport company as a tram conductor. ‘Yes, great, we are hiring, we are hiring…’ That was because tram conductors had to sign a contract for at least one year, they could not just leave right away. And it is a work with irregular duty hours, one day you work like this, and then like this, and they were searching for conductors all the time. And so I applied to work as a tram conductor. ‘Yes, yes.’ In the personnel department they told me: ‘Yes, you are hired, we will contact you.’ But two days later, a notice appeared in the newspaper, that the drivers’ course was starting, and I still didn’t know anything. So I went to Pisárky in Brno to the personnel department by myself, and I told this to her and she replied: ‘Mr…,’ well, not Mr., she addressed me as a comrade, comrade was still used at that time… ‘But Comrade Fruvirt, you returned from prison, is that so?’ When the procurator informed us about the amnesty, he talked about bright future for us, and so on. ‘But you have come from prison, well, yes, but it says here, at least two years of manual work.’ An order like this came, and so I applied to work as a cleaner of tram rail switches.” – “For how long did you work there, two years?” – “Nearly two years. But there were good guys in the Transport Company, and so I applied for that course, I passed the drivers’ course and then I worked as a tram driver for four years, until 1966.”