Marie Janalíková

* 1942

  • "I remember the day my father was arrested. They arrested him during the night, but I woke up in the morning and I saw a man peeking into our room. So I jumped out of the bed and told my siblings 'Wake up, uncle Baťa si here!' and ran into the other room where I saw a lot of people. There were things thrown out of cupboards and drawers and those people were rummaging around in our things. I was taken aback and ran into my father's room where mum was leaning against a cupboard watching those men checking and throwing away dad's writing table and all of his documents he kept in the room."

  • „I can't remember all of the horrors my father was saying about the time in prison. They were beating him on soles of his feet, showering him with ice cold water, they were opening cellar window and showering them or turned on a waterhose with cold water on them. Before they could get warm after returning to their cells, they woke him up again and rushed him back to the cellar and turned on the hose again. Of course, they would lead them blindfolded so they had no idea where they heading. Slapping their faces was common. We know he got slapped so heavily that he hit the stove and hurt his head.“

  • "When as a pensioner he was helping in the old town pharmacy, Grebeníček came once and as soon as he saw dad he turned around and left the pharmacy at once. Obviously they recognized one another, following which the boss asked dad 'For God's sake, what have you done to him? He's always chatting here with us all morning and now that he saw you he turned around and he's gone.' At that time dad came back realy aggravated and said to the boss 'I think he had bad conscience."

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    Zlín, 07.04.2014

    (audio)
    délka: 01:41:49
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memory of nations (in co-production with Czech television)
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We were a thorn in their flesh

Marie Janalíková - 1960
Marie Janalíková - 1960
zdroj: archiv Marie Janalíkové

Marie Janalíková was born on 9th August 1942 in Uherské Hradiště into the family of a pharmacist Dr. Miloslav Souček, who was in 1951 sentenced to twelve years of prison in show trial known as Action „Včelka“ with members of an alleged anti-Communist group. The Communists falsely accused him to be the key person of resistance group gathering weapons from western spies and organizing armed resistance near Uherský Brod. Miloslav Souček went through the custody in Uherské Hradiště, where he met with the interrogator Alois Grebeníček, the prison in Vítkovice, Mírov, Příbram and Ilava. He was released in 1960 thanks to the amnesty of the president Novotný. His imprisonment had a deep impact on his family throughout the whole period of the Communist regime. Communists confiscated all their property, wife of Miloslav Souček couldn‘t find a proper job, their children were forbidden to study at university, secret police monitored the whole family and provoked them to criminal activity. After his release, Dr. Souček continued in his pharmaceutic profession. His daughter Marie Janalíková completed the teacher‘s institute in Kroměříž and worked as a teacher at a nursery school where she eventually became a director. Along with her sister Hana and other members of the Confederation of Political Prisoners they established the civil society organization Dcery that brings into focus the life stories of political prisoner‘s families.