Jiří Pokorný

* 1933

Political prisoner in the 1950‘s (ČSR), Forced Labour Camps (1948 - 1954), Victims of church persecution in 1948-1989
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    Jáchymov - correctional cell

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    "We - the believers - had a problem. If we didn´t go to work on Friday on the afternoon shift or on Saturday on the morning/afternoon shift they always punished us with the correctional cell. That was sort of prison inside of a prison. I remember it was in the summer. Me, Julek Hybšman, Jenda Fila and Jenda Kloda were waiting. I still see it as it happened yesterday. The sun was shining, so we tried to absorb as much of its rays as we could, because we knew we´ll be locked in the correction. Before we got in they released some guy named Janatka (he was a Catholic). He got out of the correction and fell down exhausted. We saw it and were afraid to go there too. We bagged the God to help us survive there."

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    In Kladno mines

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    "Of course I didn´t want to go to jail for the third time. We were not pretending we’re heroes. Instead I started to work in the coal mine in Kladno town. I signed the ten-year contract there. I was working there for few years already when on the night shift all of a sudden the lights went off, then a huge blow and I felt I was covered in. I felt awful back pain. I began to say good bye to my life. And because I´m a believer I bagged the God forgiveness and that he accepted all my sins. My comrades came holding the lamps and saw that I was covered. In the hospital they told me that in case of the anthrax infection, they would have to amputate my leg. Thank God it didn´t happen. I got my left leg broken in six places; I hurt my back, my spine and pelvis. I was sick for fifteen months."

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    Jáchymov - hiding the Bible

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    "We didn´t have the whole Bible there, but if Jenda Kloda got something, we hid it on different places. Each of us kept some part of it and we exchanged it. That was all done secretly, because we had to hide things like that. Usually we hid it somewhere into the iron bed. Sometimes the warders found it even there and then threw it away. But what they could never take away from us was our faith and our talks to God."

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    Conditional release

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    "The screw told me: ´You have served half of the sentence. We can now release you for good behavior and good work performance. You must, however go to the military service and work on Saturdays.´ I replied: ´Thank you very much, but I´m going back to my cell.´ Mr. Hampl told me then: ´You´re going home, right?´ So I told him that they offered me the conditional release, but I would have to join the military service, which I refused to. He was a political prisoner, former policeman. He took of his hat and band down all the way to the floor: ´I bow deeply before you. None of us- the political prisoners - would ever do such thing.´"

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    The Sing- Sing

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    "I got to the StB Sing - Sing then. It was a famous StB station. I spent few days and I can tell the living conditions there were cruel. One day I, the crew and another prisoner went for a walk. When we reached the star case and then I felt a punch in my left shoulder. It was some young StB officer who hate us so much that i got punched...he wanted me to fall down the stairs. I would have ended up in blood puddle or even death. But God didn´t let that happen."

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    ?, 01.03.2007

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As I´m religious person I can´t be angry with them, but I can´t say that I would kiss the communist.

Jiří Pokorný
Jiří Pokorný
photo: Pamět Národa - Archiv
photo: Pamět Národa - Archiv
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Mr. Jiří Pokorný has been strongly religiously based every since he was a young boy. And it was his affiliation to the Church that fundamentally influenced his life to come. Being an Adventist he refused to work on Saturdays which caused him stay in jail twice. He was born on October 6th 1933 in Prague. His father was a mechanical stoker on locomotives. His mother was at home taking care of four children and the entire household. She worked occasionally. After the grammar school which Mr. Pokorný visited in Prague-Holešovice, he attended one-year teaching bricklayer course. After that he worked as a bricklayer until the fall of 1953 when he joined the army. After first two periods of the military service in Havířov town the military counterintelligence lieutenant Novakovski pressed charges against Mr. Pokorný. He was then sentenced by military court under the section 270/b for the avoidance of the military service to eighteen months unconditionally. Right after the verdict he has been escorted from Havířov to the military prison in Špilberk, where he boarded to serve the sentence on February 11th 1955. After short while he has been transported firstly to Cejl prison (in Brno town) and then to labor camp in Rtyně v Podkrkonoší town. There he was working on construction of houses for the warders. In Rtyně however, he spent only three months (until May 11th 1955). After that he was released on amnesty. The next six months Jiří Pokorný spent as a laborer on the construction. A new call up to the military came on November 16th 1955. Accompanied by his friend Jenda Fila - Adventist as well- he joined the military service in Komárno town. It didn´t took too long for the history to repeat itself. And it was again Lt. Novakovski who pressed charges against him and this time also against his friend Jenda Fila for avoidance of the military service. The second sentence Jiří Pokorný served again firstly in Špilberk and in Cejl prison nearby Brno town. After short intermezzo in Pankrác prison in Prague was Mr. Pokorný and others transported to Jáchymov town prison. After one year spent in labor camp Barbora he was transferred to Vykmanov labor camp, where he spent the next two years. After serving his second sentence (he was released in May 1958) Mr. Pokorný was then supposed to join the mandatory military training again. Because he knew the consequences he might have been suffering again (and there was a reasonable chance that he may not be able to survive the third time in communist camp) he decided to do, what many of the military service objectors were doing at that time and he agreed to the ten-year work in Kladno black coal mines. After few years there he got seriously injured during the caving. It caused him one year in bed. Even today, Mr. Pokorný still bears the consequences of his stay in labor camps as well as the hard work in the mines. His health is in poor condition. He remained childless.  

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