Michal Popovec

“The public was excluded from some parts of the trial. My trial was public, because I was accused only of a petty crime in comparison with Berežný. The public was excluded from his trial, because he faced some fabricated charges. They had no evidence. There were only some dubious military court experts. They introduced the charge as follows: ‘If the accused one did this, that could have happened.’ What the accused had really done and what had really happened was not mentioned at all. It was the content of the whole expert opinion. He had the rank of major, can you believe it? People were sentenced without any evidence. They were given as many years as the prosecutor and some other ‘legal’ representatives wanted. If they needed somebody to be hung, they sentenced him/her to death penalty without any problems.”

“During the investigation I was told that early in the morning on May 1, it was about 1 a.m., or at least I guess it was, the bridge connecting Mokroluh and Bardejov was exploded. Then the bridges weren’t as good as they are nowadays. There were a lot of wooden bridges, too. Even the one which was exploded was made of wood. Since the State Security wanted to reveal who did it, eight students of the grammar school were arrested. We spent three days in a jail. During the investigation they used various tricky methods we weren’t prepared to. Well, I admit we had done some silly things, but we had nothing to do with the explosion.”

“I come from the village of Ličartovce in Prešov district. My father was a peasant. In spite of the fact he didn’t have much land, he refused collectivization. He preferred working on his own field and submitting the compulsory allowance to the government. He always did his duty. He loved farming. When he was only two years old, his father died and he looked after the farm only with his mother. He had five sisters whose parts he had to look after, too. But suddenly he was threatened to lose it all. That was why he refused the collectivization. A lot of people came to try to persuade him and finally, he had to hide from them. For example, he stayed longer on the field and my mother had to go home alone. I along with my siblings had to help him at the farm, too. But when they blackmailed him to fire me from my work and to fire my siblings from their schools, he finally signed the papers and joined a collective farm. So he was forced to agree with collectivization and then he worked in the collective farm almost for free.”

“It happened in Prešov. It was normal to be given a thick ear, even battering by truncheon was common, but in Prešov beating was even worse. I’ve just started to talk about it to my wife. In Prešov, there was an interrogator called Straka, I don’t know whether it was his real name or not. He was one of the nastiest people there. And believe me, there were a lot of nasty men. They were all strong as a horse, it was incredible. I don’t know whether Straka battered other prisoners as much as he battered me, but I suppose he did. I had the misfortune he battered me so much, especially on my heels that I was not able to walk for a year.”

“I don’t know whether on that day or on the next one they set out on a journey to Austria. But Mr. Berežný made a big mistake when he let a Czech man called Pepík join them, because he was a traitor. They safely passed our border to Austria. They didn’t have any problems, because Pepík knew the area well. He’d had to be there more times before. Maybe he’d similarly deceived more people. There was a bridge across a stream. One streamside belonged to the Russian zone and the other one to the American. Pepík proposed them to take a rest and eat before crossing the bridge and entering the American zone. Since they were all tired and hungry, they agreed with his proposal. So they sat down and started to unpack their snack, nobody noticed that Pepík had disappeared. Ten minutes later, they were surrounded by Russian soldiers who arrested them and took away. They spent one night in Austria and then they were driven back to Czechoslovakia. That’s how it all began. A few days later I was arrested together with other members of my family and doctor Baráč as well.”

“Just before our trial, I think it was a month before it, General Rašla went for inspection into the cells. He allegedly did it twice a year. He was one of the fiercest prosecutors then. He was a rascal and scoundrel, too. When he came to our cell, he looked around and said: ‘Do you have any question?’ I, being the youngest of the prisoners in our cell, said: ‘I do.’ ‘Well, what do want to know?’ ‛I don’t know why I am here.’ ‘Wait and you will see, bloody bastard!’ It was his answer. He slammed the door and he left.”