The Communist regime sent my brother to prison, then my uncle and my cousin
František Sedoník was born on 4 October 1925 in Sýkorec (Lubina from 1959, now part of Kopřivnice). During the war the Czech-only Sýkorec belonged under Reichsgau Sudetenland, and the border with the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia passed right behind the witness’s house. His memories thus include several incidents that occurred in connection with the local financial (customs) office. After completing school František Sedoník worked in Kopřivnice at Ringhoffer-Tatra a. s., and besides some brief interludes, he stayed in the same factory, which was renamed to Tatra National Enterprise after its nationalisation, until his retirement. In the 1950s he witnessed the arrest of his brother Josef Sedoník and later also his uncle Alois Polášek and his cousin Václav Polášek, who were sentenced to prison in Communist show trials. Fears of what might come next and of possible further persecution influenced the lives of him and other family members for many years to come.
