As if I was trained for escapes
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Zdeněk Marek was born on 26 June 1929 in Valča, Slovakia. His father worked at the railway, his mother died early of cancer and the family moved to Nymburk. His father committed suicide because of a false accusation of embezzlement. Zdeněk was then brought up by his older siblings. In 1945 Zdeněk’s brother came to visit from abroad - he had met a Belgian woman when doing forced labour in Nazi Germany, they had married and settled down in Belgium. He urged Zdeněk to come with him to Belgium, which he did. He lived with his brother for some time and then moved to Germany, where he found employment as a security guard at an American airbase. The Americans gave him training and Zdeněk undertook several crossings of the Czechoslovak-German border near Domažlice. He was supposed to find new operatives for the Americans in Czechoslovakia. But in the end he was overcome by homesickness and so decided to make use of the offer of a full pardon for returned emigrants. He went back, but was arrested at the airport in Prague and during the subsequent trial was sentenced to five years of prison for espionage. He was imprisoned in Svatoňovice near Trutnov, Kartouzy, Vinařice, and in a uranium mine in Jáchymov. He attempted to escape from Vinařice and his sentence was thus extended by another two years. In the end he was released on probation and left to work in a coal mine in Litvínov. There he met his future wife Anna. Together they settled down in Deštná in the Orlické Mountains, where the witness was employed as a forest worker until his retirement.
