František Maxera

“They called a rapid reaction unit on us from Kroměříž or maybe from Zlín and suddenly this hotshot was pointing a gun in a holster at me. It was just this… well, you could shoot with it. And he shouted: ‘Hands up! Hands up!’ So, they arrested us and drove us away.” – “And they arrested you right on the spot?” – “Yes, right at the spot.” – “So you were taken into custody.” – “First, we drove to a police station in Bystřice pod Hostýnem, they did a preliminary interrogation there. And they drove us older ones, like Emil Hauptmann who was one year older than me, Ivan Biel and Honza Škrabánek, to a drunk tank in Kroměříž to test our alcohol levels. I was almost thirty-one. And I had a friend in Brno, well I still do have a friend in Brno, who had studied psychiatry and had had an internship there or however the doctors call it. And when she had celebrated her graduation, her boss – the superintendent of the ward – had been there, I don’t remember his name anymore. And so when the nurses were taking blood samples from us, breath and blood and so on, I asked her whether that doctor was there. And she looked and asked: ‘What with him?’ And I said: ‘We know each other from a graduation party.’ She said: ‘He’s not here.’ And then said: ‘And do you know what’s going on with you?’ And I replied: ‘I do know, the guys in the hall are agents of the State Security. And tomorrow they’ll probably take us into custody.’ And she said: ‘You know what? I’ll put you in a room here.’

“They asked me to shave. I said: ‘No.’ And they said: ‘What if we ordered you to?’ I said: ‘Then I’ll sue you for mutilation. Because that would be a forced change of my appearance and you cannot change the look I have in my military ID.’ So, everyone shut up after that, they were scared of the mutilation part. And when we lined up for the parade and were supposed to greet Štrougal, this major Rubáš – that was before he sent me to a madhouse – said: ‘Why does this guy have a chin strap?’ It’s this thing that can be stretched and you put it under your chin. And he said: ‘No, he has a full beard.’ – ‘Well then send him to a sickroom or to the kitchen.’ That’s how I got sent to the kitchen when Štrougal arrived and then, so as not to get in the way because there had been some military exercise because of him, then they sent me to be a guarding defence of a long-distance signal spot. We had a radio there, today a cellphone would do it, it was a jeep, the Russian ZIL car with radio equipment. We also had a Praga V3S there. But those guys were just goofing off, smoking, eating snacks a being bored. The radio operators told me: ‘Look Maxera, if someone rings, answer it.’ And they went to kip in the V3S. So, I answered it and it said: ‘This is Štrougal.’ And I thought someone was just pranking me. After all, I had been put in the kitchen and then driven away so that Štrougal wouldn’t see me. And he slept… Our company was in Kaplice and next to it was the border intelligence for Linz. It was the same in Znojmo for Vienna and in Hodonín, they all had their different agents. We also witnessed some posh ones when we were sent to guard a border crossing somewhere. There were saps under the iron bulwark and the power lines and sometimes Austria had breathed down on someone’s neck and these people then came and passed through. So, for example this fancy madam with fur paleto and high heels went through the underpass to the border guards. (…) And now the radio was telling me: ‘This is Štrougal.’ I said: ‘What? You are Štrougal?’ And he said: ‘I’m Štrougal.’ And I told him: ‘If you’re Štrougal then you can kiss my ass.’ And I hung up.”