Josef Brzoň

* 1935

  • “The guard would come with these leather eyeglasses with a wide rubber band in the back in his hand and he would put it over your eyes. And the nicest thing was to watch him how carefully he was putting it on, so that leather thing would fit to your nose, to make sure that you wouldn´t see a thing as they would take you out. And I case you would meet a fellow prisoner or someone who had been investigated in your case or so on, you had to face the wall, either me or him. You had to face the wall and touch it with your nose, those were the things they liked. And one of their favorite things was that... well even amongst them there were some decent men who would take you by the hand like this. But the bastard would just take you by the sleeve and he would let you smash your head into the door-post, saying: 'What are you looking at, you son of a bitch?' And they really enjoyed that, that was their delight. And there were many other things, for example, I had been abused that I had been washing my mess tin after lunch. And every time, I tried to convince him that I didn´t wash it that I would just lick it out with my finger. And today, no one would believe that I had been licking my finger and picking the crumbs from that disgusting bread that fell on the ground to paste it back to the slice.”

  • „The Jihlava prison had been a hell for me. Not because they would beat me or so, but because of the system that had been in place there. At night, there were two or three strip lights, floodlights that would shine on you from the ceiling. And you had to lie on your back, on straw mattresses that were on the floor, and you had to lie with your hand on the blanket. And it was bad, as for three nights I couldn´t sleep, as if you would roll over on your side, there had been a metal door and the guard would kick it so hard it sounded like thunder. And the whole prison would wake up. We were in solitary cells, the chair had been bolted to the floor, the only water you had came through a hose in the wall and there were these squat toilets. And you had to sit on the chair with your hands on your knees, facing the door. And he (the guard) supervised only two or three cells so he would peek in every few seconds, checking if you didn´t cut your throat or wrists.”

  • “I was arrested on the 4th of January 1954 in Šumbark. Secret Police men from Jihlava came for me. And it had been very cold on that day, I don´t know exactly when they had put me in chains. I just remember that people were already coming from work. And some guys from Slovakia who knew me were asking me: 'What it this, Josef?' So, I just showed them the chains. And after that, we would get in a car in a hurry and then there was this horrible journey to Jihlava. As if the nature itself would conspire against us, we would get stuck in the snow, there was a blizzard. And they were cursing me: 'It would be best to kill you right on the spot, you bastard!' They had to get out and push the car, so it had been quite late, I don´t know what time it was, when we would come to the Jihlava prison courtyard. And there were those maybe four bastards waiting and one of them would point on me and say: 'For you, you son of a bitch, just for you we were waiting there!'”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Bernartice u Čechtic, 27.08.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:31:16
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

If there wouldn‘t be the Communist regime, there would be no need for the Mašín brothers

Josef Brzoň during the compulsory military service
Josef Brzoň during the compulsory military service
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Josef Brzoň was born on March 16th of 1935 in Bernatice near Čechtice. After graduating from the local elementary school and the elementary school in Dolní Kralovice, he completed his apprenticeship as a bricklayer. Even as a minor, he participated in the anti-communist resistance and was gathering weapons. In 1954, she was arrested by the Secret Police and taken to the district prison in Jihlava. He could get the death penalty, but in the end, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason by the district court in Jihlava as one of the people charged in the ‚Bernard‘ process. As a bricklayer, he went through many labour camps, Ostrov nad Ohří, The ‚C‘ camp near Karlovy Vary, The „12“ camp near Loket nad Ohří and Barbora and Svatopluk mines to name a few, and he had also been working in inmate construction units in Praha. He had been released after the Amnesty of 1960. After completing his compulsory military service, he had been working as a bricklayer at the Communal Construction Enterprise in Dolní Kralovice and after that at the Highway D1 Praha – Brno construction site, leaving with a disability pension. In 1965, he married Mrs Libuše with whom he has two sons. At present, he has been living with his family in the village where he was born.