Karel Maier

“We had known each other from our childhood but hadn’t been friends until later. It might not seem like it, but I did weight-lifting, and he [Vladimír Hučín - ed.] talked me into it, and we did weight-lifting together with one other friend. He had a gym at home, so we would go to his place to train. While we trained we discussed the political stuff... and that’s how we got to know each other closer, this way... [Q: And what opinions did Mr Hučín have at the time? What did you agree on?] We agreed pretty much on the fact that there shouldn’t be any Ruskies here. That was one thing. And the second thing – that the Communists don’t quite cut it. Those were hours upon hours that we spent together, so we kept talking about things, but to say specifically now, I wouldn’t know any more... He needed something now and then because he was doing that resistance stuff, so he needed help with some things, and I was willing to help him. [Q: What did Hučín’s resistance consist of?] I don’t know everything in detail, but here and there he blew up some noticeboards, her and there he defaced or plastered something up. He needed some things moved, so I’d help him get it ready, move it, but I don’t really remember any more what it was exactly that he did. [Q: And did he ask for help himself, or did you...?] It came from the fact that we trained together, so we met up three times a week, at least. [Q: So you managed to plan it out together somehow?] I knew a lot of things about him, he knew a lot about me. He showed us various weapons and goodness knows what else he had at home. [Q: That must have required a lot of trust.] Well I guess we did trust each other. A hundred percent, I guess. Or I think so, anyway. [Q: And in what way did you actively participate?] Some chemicals had to be taken out from the plant – because they had practically everything there back then. So some chemicals from the plant... [Q: Did you work in that factory?] Yes, I worked there. He worked there as well, except he couldn’t take anything out because they kept watching him. State Security was after him at that point. So through me and through other friends we’d take some of the chemicals out, some cases for weapons – the material to make them out of, I mean. [Q: So you took it out through the gates, and where did you take it?] Well, we took it to him...”

“... back then it was clear to me that if I say anything, I’ll end up there [in prison - ed.] as well. So I was silent. The things I knew, I didn’t tell. And it took a while – the first was that you basically went behind these kind of bars, they closed you up there, and we sat in a room with three blokes, and they kept asking things one over the other. I have this one picture burned in my memory – there was this big ashtray there like they have in pubs, and when we arrived it was empty, and when I left it was heaped with butt ends, they had nowhere to put them any more, they smoked like chimneys. I didn’t smoke back then, so I didn’t mind. They kept going on, one over the other... and then they took a break. Then the secretary made a tactical appearance and brought me some coffee and tea, if I wanted, and water, if I wanted, that they had gone to have lunch. And then she said: ‘Don’t you tell them anything.’ And I told her: ‘I don’t have anything to tell, I don’t know anything.’ And so she started, and she sat there discussing things with me for another hour, and she was there like a friend, all friendly like, and she disparaged them and said: ‘Don’t tell them anything, if you do know something. [Q: And she was there by punishment...?] Well, she was – how to say it – she was the one interrogating me afterwards, but in a friendly way. And then the others came back from their lunch and set into me full-tilt again, then they chucked me out and it was over.”