“Maybe you will laugh about it but I’m thanking God for being imprisoned with these wonderful people for so long. Because I really feel pity for those who were ‘free’ and had to go to the ‘voluntary’ elections and do all that stuff. I didn’t have to do this. I had the best education from the most competent people.”
“My name is Pavel Hubačka and I was born on May 18, 1925. I come from a farmer’s family – my dad had four hectares of land. We were nine altogether in the family.”
“My mother died in 1950. The girl that I was with, and that I was planning to marry, left me in three years. Thank God I have to say. I simply had no commitments. The prison authority didn’t support my release from prison. They didn’t recommend it because I had twelve disciplinary penalties. It was all for supporting somebody or something of the sort. When they opened the process again they asked me all kinds of questions, like if I had come to learn that I went wrong, or if I had the will to rehabilitate myself. I told them that I had been locked up for 13 years and hadn’t seen or heard about any changes so how could I judge if it was right or wrong.”
“First of all, they tried to break us mentally. They threatened to harass or harm our parents. They even claimed that my parents were encouraging me to confess because that would make the sentence lighter and I would be home sooner. Then came the interrogations. They knew a lot of things and wanted me to confirm or disprove them. I could hardly disprove anything as I spoke only for myself and for no one else. Therefore I claimed that I didn’t know about the things they were talking about, or that I couldn’t believe that it happened. Gradually, the interrogations were longer and longer and became physically exhausting. The interrogators were changing and therefore it was bearable for them. At some point you collapse – first mentally and then even physically. You simply become unable to object anymore. I had three interrogations that only ended when I passed out. The worst, however, were the interrogations when they were giving me electrical shocks. They were targeting sensitive spots on your body like the neck and they were increasing the intensity. You can take it even for three, maybe five hours before it becomes unbearable and you fall unconscious. When it becomes too much your brain switches off. These were the worst interrogations.”
“I was arrested roughly three or four days after the arrest of Pospíšil and Vymyslický but I don’t know exactly when they were arrested. The secret-police officers came at night – it was about two or three o’clock in the morning. They had the whole house surrounded and knew that I had hidden Vetejška at my place. Therefore, the first thing they were looking for when they came to me, was my bunker that I had from the war. They went to see it. Then they came in through the window into my grandmother’s room, surrounded the house and lined up my parents while pointing their machine guns at them. It was secret-police officers from Prague who arrested me. Pospíšil took them to my house. During the arrest they were constantly asking: ‘Where is Vetejška’?”
“Jožka Pospíšil called me to his place and introduced me to Vetejška, although I already knew him a bit because we used to be at the same school. Pospíšil told me that Jára had some plans with our organization and that he would take over the leadership from me. I told him the members would have to agree with it first. So we called up a meeting in a wine cellar at Petr Vymyslický’s place where Jára took over the resistance group.”
Pavel Hubačka was born on May 18, 1925, into a peasant’s family. His father, Metoděj Hubačka was a farmer and his mother Františka Hubačková, née Dvořáková was in the household. After finishing primary school in Dolní Bojanovice, he attended municipal school while he did his military service in Šternberk. He was trained as a mechanic in Hodonín and until his arrest, worked in several companies as a car electrician. After the war he was the deputy chieftain of the ‘Eagle’ and the co-founder of the Junák in Bojanovice. Until his military service began, he was an organizer in the ČSL. Mr. Hubačka’s illegal activities were focused in several directions. He organized action against the local exponents of the Communist regime in Dolní Bojanovice. For this purpose, he was a trained members of the armed resistance groups. At the same time, in cooperation with a Roman-Catholic priest from Bojanovice, Mr. Jaromír Pořízek, he provided support to families persecuted by the Communist regime. During his illegal activities he came into contact with Jaroslav Vetejška, a courier, who was involved in the shooting of State-Police Lieutenant Alois Dyček. J. Vetejška took over the lead of the Bojanovice resistance group from P. Hubačka and J. Pospíšil after he returned from abroad. On 7 January, 1950, P. Hubačka was placed into pre-trial custody. The investigation took place in Hodonín, Uherské Hradiště and Břeclav. During the investigation in Uherské Hradiště, Mr. Hubačka was subjected to brutal interrogations. The trial with the group took place on March 20 - 22, 1950. The senate of the State Court in Prague was presided by Dr. Jaroslav Novák, the prosecutor was state attorney Dr. Karel Čížek. The main proceedings of the trial took place with a pre-selected audience directly in Hodonín. Mr. Hubačka was sentenced to 30 years of heavy incarceration, a fine of 30,000 crowns, the confiscation of all of his property and the deprivation of his civil rights for 10 years for committing high treason and espionage. After his conviction, he went through several prisons and camps: Prague-Pankrác, Bytíz, Leopoldov, Mírov, Vojna, Pilsen-Bory. He spent the longest time in camps in the Příbram region. During his term in prison he fell ill with tuberculosis and was repeatedly disciplined and punished. He was paroled in July, 1964 after a review of the original trial. After his release, he was first employed in the Czechoslovak automotive transportation in Gottwaldov (Zlín). Then, he spent almost his entire productive age as a welder and welding instructor. In the sixties and seventies, he founded and ran a welding cooperative and a welding school, where he even employed several of his former inmates from prison. In 1965 he married his wife and they raised three children. He is a member of the Confederation of political prisoners of the Hodonín branch, where until 2003 he served as vice-president. His life creed was: “go through life with moral integrity and honesty”. Pavel Hubačka died in 2016.
