Antonín Holub

The guard shift came to replace [Timotej Sollar], and there it was – a rifle leaning against something and even a neatly folded uniform. Since it had been photographed, we could see exactly how it looked. That’s how he had left it. The passageways were unlocked – the light was probably on up [in the tower], but no one was there, so no one could check. The whole section was usually illuminated further down – at least when I was there. His belongings were left behind, so he must have been wearing sweatpants underneath, because he probably didn’t just go in his underwear. He had to swim across the river, so he must have had some kind of bag. He was gone. And of course, right away, the alarm was raised at the station – something like this never happened. This was a big one. A major alert, and soon enough, even the counterintelligence officers from Břeclav arrived. Volga and Pobeda cars were parked there – the secret agents who drove them. For about two days, we were running around, searching. Everything was being documented, and an investigation was underway. Anyone who knew him was called in, one by one, for questioning.

"After a month they took us to the border for the first time - I think it was Poštorná, but I don't know if it was exact. But I think it was to Poštorná. They brought us there. It was quite a shock, and not only for me, but for everybody. When you first arrived at the border, as much as they liked to show us those concentration camps and those films about the concentration camps as children, or the various anniversaries of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, suddenly here it was almost the same - isolators, wires, dogs, guard towers. It was like... I can tell you, we all got quite quiet and watched. The old hands, they made fun of us, and then the officers told us that we were the outpost of socialism, that we were the first ones who had to protect the gains we had here."