Vladimír Bohata

* 1926

  • "The sister ran up there, 'Bohata, you can walk, put on your shoes immediately!' So I had to put on my shoes and ran to the stairs at the last moment. And another one behind me and you fell on me. I then lay there under a pile of those bodies with a broken finger. I broke it right there, in that cover. Jirásek's clinic was hit exactly where I was lying. "

  • "When the meeting ended and all the employees came to their workplaces, they came to me with stubborn accusations that I did not attend the meeting and that I was the only one. They saw it as a political act, and the then union president insisted that I be expelled, fired, and so on. The master and his deputy, the master Mr. Cerveny and his deputy Marek, wanted to slow it down. Not that I was an excellent worker, but I was a good worker, they wanted me to stay there. But Diviš asserted that I was forced to leave the shipyard in about three weeks. "

  • "Then, after a while, I noticed that Mr Slánský had disappeared, he did not appear. Then even a little later ... but when I asked about it, nobody knew anything. After a while, Captain Trapl, who was his personal protector, while we were in a group guarding his travels or his stay, was also lost."

  • "And suddenly I stopped hearing the sounds of footsteps in the sandy corridor, and I thought something was wrong. And indeed. Mr. Slánský shouted at me: "Comrade!" So I turned around and he began to scold me as if I didn't know what was appropriate behaviour. I say: 'Mr Slánský, of course, I know this, and I apologize, but I will try to explain it to you. If you remember, about a week ago we met in this park under similar circumstances. I greeted you, and you did not answer me, nor did you respond to it. I saw that you are very thoughtful, deep in yourself, as if you have some worries. That's why this time I thought it would be better not to disturb you, so that's why I missed you this way. 'Mr. Slánský smiled a little and then surprised me by saying,' Let's take a walk. ' Then we walked together through the park for about half an hour, we had a very pleasant discussion. Mr Slánský spoke little or almost nothing about himself. But he asked me about something - about my parents, how satisfied I was with him at work and more and more, what my father was doing, and so on. I told him everything. He listened to everything carefully and after a while, we said goodbye very friendly. "

  • "So I got to Korunovační Street in Dejvice, where the then secretary of the party, Rudolf Slánský, was based. We still went there one by one and the same, thus almost "family conditions" were created there. Mrs Slánská gave birth to a small child at that time, so the pram was standing in the backyard. The hired girl who was a babysitter was guarding the pram because Mrs Slánská had other tasks. And we saw little of Slánský, because he left for work early in the morning and returned late in the evening, sometimes at night. But I, when I met him, I perceived him as a very nice, nice gentleman, but quite withdrawn. "

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 08.12.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 01:55:41
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the 20th Century TV
  • 2

    V Praze, 22.12.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 01:10:32
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the 20th Century TV
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I saw how was Rudolf Slánský immersed in himself

Vladimit Bohata in the VB uniform
Vladimit Bohata in the VB uniform
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Vladimír Bohata was born on August 29, 1926, in Prague and spent his childhood in old Liben, where his father František ran a bicycle business. Vladimír‘s mother Antonia came from the famous Šimůnek family and her brother František was an important aviator - a pioneer of Czech aviation before the First World War. In February 1945, the witness experienced an air attack on Prague in a hospital in Královské Vinohrady. He grew up without friends and spent time alone. Immediately after the war, he joined the Union of Czech Youth and subsequently became a member of the Communist Party in February 1946. He completed his military service in České Budějovice with the first infantry regiment of Master Jan Hus, where he served as a politruk in the second year. He signed an application to join the Ministry of National Security (MNB) and from August 1950 he was assigned as a guard to the „Maple“ unit, which was part of the newly established MNB. His main task was to guard the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Shortly afterwards, he was transferred to the guard of individual statesmen. In Korunovační Street, he guarded the villa of the then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Rudolf Slánský, until 28 November 1951, when he was transferred to the „Route“ unit (this happened five days after the arrest of Rudolf Slánský). He later took advantage of the reorganization and in 1954 moved to the river section, which falls under the municipal administration of Public Security. From the beginning of the 1960s, he worked as a service driver and was later appointed driver of an auto squad. He retired in 1983 and ended his service with the rank of lieutenant in the SNB. At the time of filming (2020), a witness lived in Prague.