“That was great. At night I was in solitary confinement and during the day I was with other inmates. It was a great hall where we worked. I had to manage the same workload as the older inmates. We were manufacturing telephone relays. I have to say that the Czechs were excellent. They always knew how to do things. Producing relays was tough – I was sitting behind a table, the desk of which was made of glass. Underneath the glass, there was a burning light bulb and you had to constantly stare into that light.”
“Each time there was an air raid or a firefight – bullets and shrapnel flying around in the air – I sneaked into this iron pipe that was on the courtyard, because in that pipe, nothing could happen to you.”
“I was in a solitary-confinement cell where you weren't allowed to lay on the bed during the noon. The cell was equipped with a folding bed that was folded during the day and unfolded for the night. I used to lay on the bed even throughout the day because each time I heard someone walking in the corridor towards my cell I jumped off the bed and folded it. So it looked like I didn't lay in it. But once I somehow missed the prison warden coming to my cell and only noticed him when it was already too late – he was already looking through the door window. The warden came in and asked me if I was laying in the bed. I told him: 'no, I wasn't'. He slapped me in the face a couple of times and I shut up.”
“I came back home. They arrested me in September or October. By then, the weather was beautiful. I was wearing my summer clothes and I took them with me to prison. They released me in December 24, on Christmas Eve. I only came back home on December 25. I went to Rudice with the others who went there. And when I came home I was so undernourished, so skinny, that my own mom didn't recognize me. I had to show her the letters she sent me to the prison in order to persuade her that it was really me. She said that it was the best Christmas present she could imagine.”
Ing. Bohumil Pořízek was born in 1927 in Odrůvky, in the district of Vyškov. The village he was born in was evacuated after the establishment of the so-called “Protectorate”. A shooting range was set up on the parcel that belonged to Bohumil’s family. Even before the evacuation of the village, Bohumil was arrested because he was suspected of setting a fire to the forest. Although the fire caused only negligible damage to the forest and wasn’t actually started by Bohumil, he was arrested being only 14 years old. In January 1943, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He served his prison term in the Bautzen prison near to Dresden. He was released on condition on Christmas Eve 1944. By the time of his release, he was undernourished to such an extent, that even his own mother didn’t recognize him. After the war, he graduated from secondary school and then from a university of forestry. He worked till his retirement for the State Forest Authority. He presently lives in Oskava.
