“I got seven years for being in touch with my brother as well as for being a member of the Handmaids. We supposedly did anti-state activity. That's why I was sentenced to seven years. It was in Nitra, but in Bratislava, no, sorry, in Prague at the Supreme Court, my sentence was decreased by two, so I only had five years left. But my father was arrested, too. The reason was the same – because he was corresponding with his son. I think he got one and a half years at first. However, when I got my sentence decreased at the Supreme Court in Prague, they added those of my two years to my dad. Thus he had three years afterwards, and I had five. My mom wasn't left out of this, but she got just a conditional discharge and a court order not to be in contact with her son.”
“Well, for example, in Pardubice there were four or six of us in one room. I don't remember exactly. However, in Želiezovce we lived in a barn together with sheep. There weren't any rugs or wooden floor, just plain ground. We had one stove as for heating and there were thirty of us on double beds. We got one bucket of coal to light up the stove and that was it. However, during the winter, that one bucket was like nothing.”
“He died on Saturday or Sunday and the funeral was supposed to be on Thursday. So we had to contact the State Security and ask for permission to travel to his funeral. I went there and asked for permission. They agreed. I was about to pay some fee and then on Monday I should have returned to receive a note. But on Monday they told me I was not allowed to attend the ceremony, since I had been imprisoned before. Thus I argued why if I'd already paid, not even my siblings or parents were permitted to go. I asked them whether they were afraid of my brother even after his death, but they said it was not proved he was dead. I told them I wished they were right, but unfortunately, he really passed away. So we ended up not going to the funeral at all.”
Marta Lihotská, née Kobelová, was born on July 4, 1933, she spent her childhood in Prievidza. She comes from a Christian family. In 1950 her brother Rudolf Kobela emigrated abroad and became a priest. After finishing elementary and middle school, Marta studied at the two-year Business School in Prievidza. Later she became a member of the secret religious group “Handmaids of the Mother of God”. After the group as well as written contact with her brother was revealed, she was arrested and sentenced for treason to seven-year imprisonment. During her process of appeal at the Supreme Court in Prague, her sentence was cut down to five years. Her father Jozef Kobela was imprisoned for three and a half years. Majority of her sentence Marta served in female labor camp in Želiezovce, where the women were treated in inhuman working and living conditions. Based on the amnesty of political prisoners in 1960 she was released. In 1965 she got married to Stanislav Lihotský, former political prisoner, and together they had three children. She spent her working age as a clerk of Housing Association in Prievidza. She has been retired since 1989 and lives in Bojnice.
