"We then sent it to the Voice of America, what was done here by the cadre people, and the Voice of America aired it. And then they came to my work at nine in the morning, drove me to the local police department of state security officers in Sušice and they interrogated me until about five o'clock in the evening, me and Michal Černěg, then they took us to Plzeň - Bory prison and the next day I was interrogated by Dr. Koranda, but I can say he was a very decent man, he was an investigator. There were two police officers in the office, whom I knew very well from the past, Hranička and Roule, who were arresting me at home or at work a few times Well, and one of them says - Mr. Hrach, your mother is very sick, right. I said, yes, but I didn't understand why he was asking about it. Well, they just left.”
"Well, and then I was released after 48 hours, and when I got home my mother told me that the first night I was on the forty-eight in Bory, someone was ringing at midnight. That was shortly after my father died. My mother was very physically and mentally ill, especially after the loss of her husband, my father. At midnight - so she went to open and there stood these two members of the state police, Hranička and Roule. They walked into the kitchen, without a search warrant, telling my mother I was sending them to get all the materials about the Charter that they needed them to investigate on the Bory. My mother was old and naively told them to look, as she took the drawer off the nightstand and said I didn't have any materials there, that was just personal correspondence. Well then Hranička began to rummage through those letters. And my mother said, wait, you can't, I don't read it either. And she somehow upset Hranička and pushed her. And as her mother fell, she bumped her head against the edge of the table, fell to the floor, and remained unconscious. They were startled, left my mother there without help, and fled. But my neighbor, Mr. Miroslav Běloch, who lived one floor below, saw them in a backyard and there was a light bulb, there was a sidewalk. He saw them coming in and within about twenty minutes he saw them leavinn after midnight.”
“I was totally locked up six times, including five times in Bory and once in Ostrov nad Ohří. In the vast majority, it was always on the occasion of an anniversary celebration. And when I was not arrested for 48 hours on 21 August, I had to report every two hours to the local VB department in Sušice. This was followed by the RENEWAL action. Sušice was inhabited by the largest number of Charter 77 signatories right after Prague. But then there was psychological pressure on the Chartists, so some of them withdrew. One of the reasons that they had threatened him, that if he did not resist, that he would make sure he was locked in a psychiatric hospital, and that it would be hard to get out of there. Or the other two were under pressure to call them to Klatovy, there they called an investigator from Pilsen and said they were verified to send so-called poisoned letters to the communist officials. The absurdity of a large extent, of course. Because they were afraid, one is not surprised, so they dismissed the Charter. Some of them then moved to Austria, including the brothers Černegs, Vaclav Luhan, Vladimir Vrba and others. I didn't move out, even though they told me they would make my life a hell to recall. I said, I would not withdraw, I signed the Charter, because I agree with it and I have no reason to run away, I stand for it and I will stand, at any cost. But since I worked as a stoker, they couldn't fire me as a stoker. First, they tried it through my relatives, the brother-in-law banned any business travels. Then they concentrated on my acquaintances. When I had an acquaintance, they went to her or her parents respectively and said - see if you know who your daughter is dating, and if you want her to graduate or get to college, if she doesn't break up with him, you can say goodbye to that. There were a few cases. But I can say that no girlfriend ever came to break up with me.”
"Then came the Charter in the 79th year, so I signed it, and the brothers Černegs, Jiří Marek of Kolinec, and the father Milan Píša. So, we signed the Charter, and there was actually contact with the state security. I remember that I came home from work, someone rang, my mother went to open, and there stood two - and again classic - one good and one bad, such evil one. I still remember their names - Vaclavicek and Korál. They interrogated us. We said that we signed the charter, we did not deny it, because it was also broadcasted by the radio Free Europe. A series of those interrogations took on such a cadence. As the signing of petitions began to grow and so we signed and in the 1980s we did - the brothers Černegs the first petition on returning the memorial board reminiscent of participation in the liberation of the US Army in Sušice. It was signed by one hundred and forty people in Sušice. Because they first called us to the City National Committee and there to our question if they were going to do some persecution because of the petitioners, they looked in horror and outrage and said, for it is the constitutional right of every citizen to express their opinion freely. But we will not return the board because of the aggressive war of Americans in Vietnam. ... which has already ended a long time ago. But then all the signatories of this petition were called by the cadre people and said, so look if you don't call it off, you do not get a building permit, not get a child to kindergarten, not get a child to high school, not get a vacation by the date you have already paid. So many people under pressure have pulled it off."
The signatories of Charter 77 and friends - from the left Karel Duda - unjustly accused for sending poisoned letters to officials, and is no longer alive. Petr Hrach in the middle and Václav Luhan on the right, who was forced to leave the former Czechoslovakia to Austria in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of the secret police ASANACE event.
Petr Hrach spent most of his life in his native Sušice in Pošumaví, where he was born on July 30, 1955. He likes to remember his childhood when he drew and modeled animals based on books and illustrations by Zdeněk Burian. In his artistic talent, he was supported during the school years by the principal of the elementary school, František Buchta. In August 1968 experienced the occupation by the Soviet Army. When Peter’s father stepped aside in protest of the occupation, the young witness had trouble getting into high school. He finally graduated from the Secondary Agricultural School in his hometown and after three years of practice he joined the boiler room in the PAP factory in Sušice. He recruited in the war, after less than a year he was exempted from public service for health reasons. Since 1976, he has followed the Plastic People band and the trial of its members. In 1979 he signed the Charter 77 declaration, and apart from signing he also directly initiated a number of other petitions. He transmitted information on what was happening in Czechoslovakia to Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America. He has been interrogated by the state security and detained six times. During an interrogation, two policement entered the apartment where they physically attacked his mother, who refused to hand over the witness’s personal correspondence. Petr Hrach, like other Chartists, was forced to emigrate as part of the event „Asanace“. In 1987 he made contact with dissidents in Prague and moved to the capital for a short time. After the divorce, he returned to Sušice and had trouble finding a job, but did not resign from anti-regime activities. He initiated a petition to return a memorial board commemorating the liberation of Sušice by the US military, convened a rally on 28 October 1989 in Sušice, and took part in local events in November 1989. Petr Hrach died on January 29, 2022.
The signatories of Charter 77 and friends - from the left Karel Duda - unjustly accused for sending poisoned letters to officials, and is no longer alive. Petr Hrach in the middle and Václav Luhan on the right, who was forced to leave the former Czechoslovakia to Austria in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of the secret police ASANACE event.
The signatories of Charter 77 and friends - from the left Karel Duda - unjustly accused for sending poisoned letters to officials, and is no longer alive. Petr Hrach in the middle and Václav Luhan on the right, who was forced to leave the former Czechoslovakia to Austria in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of the secret police ASANACE event.
Petr Hrach with the former headmaster of the primary school, František Buchta after 1990, who had a major share in the restoration of the commemorative board for the liberation of Sušice by the US military on the façade of the local museum and the placement of the T.G. Masaryk to the park in front of the school, which bore Masaryk´s name thanks to Buchta.
Petr Hrach with the former headmaster of the primary school, František Buchta after 1990, who had a major share in the restoration of the commemorative board for the liberation of Sušice by the US military on the façade of the local museum and the placement of the T.G. Masaryk to the park in front of the school, which bore Masaryk´s name thanks to Buchta.
