Ing. Luděk Šácha

"Mezi mladými lidmi se objevily zbraně. Sehnat pistoli mezi klukama nebyl problém. V novinách jsem taky zahlédl článek, že to bylo víc jak tisíc chlapců, kteří v ČSR po revoluci přišli o zrak, když si hráli se zbraněmi a granáty. To neměli brát vůbec do ruky. Já jsem za klukovskou protislužbu sehnal revolver, do kterého se vešly náboje z pušky. Ne celé, ale když jsem vyndal kulku z patrony a pilkou na železo nábojnici přeřízl, vrátil jsem to zpátky a dal jsem tam vatu, na to jsem dal kulku, kterou jsem si odlil z olova. Tak to bylo… I když jsem s tím nikdy nevystřelil, já jsem dal pečetní vosk na to a tím jsem střílel. Tak s takovouhle zbraní jsem se vydal do Německa, do světa. To že tam budou esesáci někde, no to bych tomu býval dal."

"My jsme byli zaměřeni proti Němcům. Měli jsme velký zážitek, bylo tam letiště. V roce 1945, začátkem dubna, tam dvakrát přiletěli Američané a rozstříleli jim letadla na zemi. A prý byla naložené, protože několik lidí tam pracovalo jako personál. Když jsme v květnu začali chodit do školy, tak jsme si to prohlíželi. Viděl jsem rozstřílený trup letadla, byla to štuka. Jako když se řízne pilou, díry, náklad asi vybouchl. Sledovali jsme ten útok a já počítal sloupy požárů. Napočítal jsem devatenáct."

“It started like this: once when we were coming back from a commando, I saw an interesting girl from the truck. Later, I saw her again at one of our public performances with our band. She was there and I was eying at her. I asked her up for a dance and that’s how we met. Back then, I could barely dance – we only learned to dance later with my wife when we attended adult dancing courses led by a friend of mine who was a researcher. After we met at that concert, I would send her letters. I don’t even know who was delivering them, probably the boys from the stall or some of the warders. Once, it was my names day, I got a package from her with a cake. Her name was Zdena Jiskrová.”

“I was sentenced to fourteen months, so Beránek was almost right. When I spent almost twenty months in Zámrsk, the appellate review court changed the verdict to 18 months. Well, I served two months longer than I had to but nobody cared about things like that back then. The trial was on 22 – 23 June, 1949, in the Pankrác court building. I’ve got the indictment here. Ivan Mikuláštík was there, Zdeněk Duchoslav, Jaroslav Hnyk, Petr Glomb, Pavel Glomb, Jirka Velíšek, Láďa Zvelebil and Šrachta. They let them and Šrachta go home. So I was originally sentenced to fourteen months but the appellate court changed it to eighteen months. It didn’t affect me that much as I was pretty resistant to these things. I felt sorry for Pavel, however, as he was sentenced to four years and it struck him pretty hard.”

“I did my military service in the auxiliary technical battalions. We were soon transferred to Slovakia and I have a funny story that goes with it. Our journey started at the Masaryk train station in Prague. There were about 1200 of us and nobody had any idea where we were going. We drove all night and ended up in Komárno. We walked in through three huge entrance gates and were welcomed by battalion leader, Captain Hajno, who gave us the first pieces of information. Then a certain lieutenant-colonel – that was a high-ranking officer in our eyes – gave a speech telling us that if we did our job well, we could ‘return to normal society’. Then Captain Hajno finished it off by saying: ‘as it’s very hot here, your hair will be shaved completely’. This sent a murmur through the crowd. There was a guy with a machine gun on guard who shouted at us: ‘Comrades, comrades, don’t protest, comrade captain was in the USSR and has plenty of experience.”

“In 1947 I was an adventurous young boy and I ran away to Germany where I was caught by the French occupation authorities and sent to a Jugenheim for two months. The Jugendheim was actually a home for youngsters. The director of the Jugendheim told me to stay in Germany, that I would have it better there. He said: ‘Stalin is going to be in Czechoslovakia within two years’. I wouldn’t believe him. I came back home in October 1947 and soon afterwards, in February 1948, the Communists staged their coup.”

“There’s one more interesting story I can tell you. Our warders in the Pankrác prison took us twice on an excursion to the so-called ‘sekyrárna’ or ‘axe room’. Our cell was next to this axe room as they set up a special juvenile compartment for us in the death cells bordering with the axe room. We were on a shared cell, the other cells were smaller accommodating up to four people. I saw the inscription ‘executed’ with the date scribbled to it. It was written on the doorjamb. Another writing I found there said: ‘I had to die because I was in love with a Communist’. I read this inscription over and over again.”