Vladimír Zamazal

“It wasn't until 1952, I didn't know it was 1952 yet, I was five years old, when a jeep stopped on our street. I was happy about it, because seeing a car on the street was quite an oddity. However, it was not so joyful, because members of the State Security jumped out of the car, searched our barracks and told my mother that my father had been arrested. Of course, the mother herself did not know why he was arrested, and I think that those who searched our apartment did not really know either, because the searches took place several times in a row. For example, one day they searched the whole lot and came the next day and suddenly found some anti-regime leaflets in the old garrisons. Father told us later that he never had any leaflets in the garrisons. They were looking for some kind of reason that they could add to what they already knew about him or what they had imprisoned him for. At the time, political prisoners were required by law to move out of their apartment or dwelling, and all their possessions were confiscated unless the family could prove that they had clearly not bought the piece of furniture themselves. The mother managed to prove that, for example, she herself received the sewing machine as a wedding gift.”

“One time this whole group went to the German Democratic Republic and there they arranged with some pastor in the church that they could play guitars and sing in the church, which they did. They sang there, they played, there were some locals who applauded them. Of course, there was a bus driver, who was directly deployed to monitor how this tourist organization behaves on its tours. What happened was that they began to take individual people from this community for questioning. Gradually, the entire section was abolished. As a warning, some were expelled from the tourist section and from ČSTV, among them were myself, my brother-in-law, Dr. (Zdeněk) Stráník and his wife, and five students who were studying at the university at the time.”