Antonín Šurýn

“Václav Havel and other signatories of Charta 77 passed trough our section. They had to undergo a medical checkup, to take shower and change civilian clothes before they were put to cells. The so called ‘sweatsuits’ were used because lot of the signatories were sentenced for many years and civilian clothes would not withstand the prison conditions. There were complaints incoming from courts that defendants were not dressed properly, when they appeared before courts. Therefore the decision was made to start using the brown ‘sweatsuits’.”

“Some prisoners committed suicide by hanging. You had no chance to prevent it. Sometimes they cut their veins. In such cases they had laid on the ground in such a position you had no chance to discover it. Blood was streaming to the other side. After a period of time coagulating blood formed strange stacks, the blood pressure had drooped and the bleeding slowed.”

“Once I peered into a cell and said: ‘What a hero are you with an axe? Now you have the courage! Come out you ace!’ The prisoner answered: ‘I will, but others had to leave first. We will fight face to face – only we two.’ After the others left the cell, I continued: ‘What an ace you are to fight with the axe against man with empty hands. Not a billy I have.’ He threw the axe away. At the very moment my colleagues rushed in and we pacified him.”

“Political prisoners had better meals than we. In 1968 it was impossible to buy any extra food. On Christmas I had to go to the cantina of political prisoner to buy pickles, oranges and bananas. They got all, in our cantina you could buy nothing. So what is all the talking about persecution about?”