František Ďulík

* 1931

  • “Do not even ask me what the interrogations looked like. Beating, beating and nothing but beating. They could not get anything out of us but through beating. On feet, on hands. Sometimes we would even confess to things we haven’t done, do you realize? I was interrogated in Prague because from the border they transferred us to Ruzyně in Prague and later to Pankrác. I have heard that here in Hradiště it was the worst and the worst that had ever existed. But as I am saying, they knew nothing else but to beat us, with a baton on hands and feet. A slap in the face, that was nothing but the feet hurt terribly, one could not even walk after that. And we would confess to things we haven’t done.”

  • “In 1953 Stalin and Gottwald died and I had spent this time in a solitary confinement. That is a sort of a concrete bunker. We would get food there once in three days. I do not know why they put us there. I had a suspicion since I have had a friend who planned on escaping, somebody ratted on him and they included me in the case. We had to wear armbands showing that we were the ‘escapees’. So they locked us up in the solitary confinement during certain holidays or funerals. There was little food there and it was very cold, lots of snow. Nobody can imagine what it was like. I don’t want to exaggerate since I don’t even remember it too well anymore; it’s been such a long time.”

  • “But I didn’t work at the ore, this had saved me. Had I worked directly at the ore, I would have perhaps not been here today. But everyone was scared of these camps. Because, I don’t even want to say it… We would work for eight hours at the shaft, return to the camp, have lunch and then do more chores in the camp or around it. For instance go into the shooting range and cut grass. We had to do all that; it was horrible. Everyone would need to do at least additional four hours at this job. And those who couldn’t have – for instance those who worked in Příbram, left at seven in the morning and only arrived at six in the evening – those wouldn’t go to this job. But us who worked at the mine, we had to. In Bytíz, there were two mining towers, it was a vast mine and there were plenty of civilians employed there as well. It was simply a huge mine. We were hungry. Back then – I also said this on camera – I said that I would have eaten a loaf of bread at once. So hungry I used to be.”

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    Zlín, 15.04.2014

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I spent my youth in the nick

Contemporary photography
Contemporary photography
zdroj: Paměť národa

František Ďulík was born February 11, 1931 in Újezd near Valašské Klobouky. He trained to become a waiter, a job he would eventually return to after the war. He established contact with the anti-communist organization Světlana, one of the largest illegal organizations in the then-Czechoslovakia. He offered his apartment as a shelter for its members, initially without knowing about their opearation and later directly involved in their anti-communist activities. After the members became aware of the threat of arrest, Dulik and his two friends decided to flee Czechoslovakia. However, all of them were caught at the border in the Ore Mountains and charged with high treason. František Ďulík was sentenced to twelve year of prison. He served his sentence at Pankrác, Pilsen-Bory, Jáchymov - Vitmanov, Prokop, camp No. 12 and Barbora. His last labor camp had been Bytíz near Příbram and he concluded his sentence in a prison in Leopoldov from where he was released in 1958. He then returned to his hometown, and in the 60s he co-organized the activities of an anti-regime Klub K231 and worked as a waiter until his retirement.