Karel Maier

* 1957

  • “... but even my parents knew nothing of it, I didn’t tell anyone at home that State Security... [Q: Didn’t they know you were questioned by State Security?] No, I never – nor were they ever here – I never told them. [Q: Did they find out about it later on?] Never... They found out now when I got the award [for anti-Communist resistance - ed.]. Dad is 92 years old, so I showed it to him, but they never knew about it otherwise. I never spoke about it at home... [Q: You concealed it from your own family?] Well... [Q: Even after the revolution...?] I never spoke about it with anyone. [Q: Humble.] No, it’s just, it wasn’t until now when it became known, when it got out on the internet – some people are only just starting to hear about it, and I just dread every moment now...”

  • “We had known each other from our childhood but hadn’t been friends until later. It might not seem like it, but I did weight-lifting, and he [Vladimír Hučín - ed.] talked me into it, and we did weight-lifting together with one other friend. He had a gym at home, so we would go to his place to train. While we trained we discussed the political stuff... and that’s how we got to know each other closer, this way... [Q: And what opinions did Mr Hučín have at the time? What did you agree on?] We agreed pretty much on the fact that there shouldn’t be any Ruskies here. That was one thing. And the second thing – that the Communists don’t quite cut it. Those were hours upon hours that we spent together, so we kept talking about things, but to say specifically now, I wouldn’t know any more... He needed something now and then because he was doing that resistance stuff, so he needed help with some things, and I was willing to help him. [Q: What did Hučín’s resistance consist of?] I don’t know everything in detail, but here and there he blew up some noticeboards, her and there he defaced or plastered something up. He needed some things moved, so I’d help him get it ready, move it, but I don’t really remember any more what it was exactly that he did. [Q: And did he ask for help himself, or did you...?] It came from the fact that we trained together, so we met up three times a week, at least. [Q: So you managed to plan it out together somehow?] I knew a lot of things about him, he knew a lot about me. He showed us various weapons and goodness knows what else he had at home. [Q: That must have required a lot of trust.] Well I guess we did trust each other. A hundred percent, I guess. Or I think so, anyway. [Q: And in what way did you actively participate?] Some chemicals had to be taken out from the plant – because they had practically everything there back then. So some chemicals from the plant... [Q: Did you work in that factory?] Yes, I worked there. He worked there as well, except he couldn’t take anything out because they kept watching him. State Security was after him at that point. So through me and through other friends we’d take some of the chemicals out, some cases for weapons – the material to make them out of, I mean. [Q: So you took it out through the gates, and where did you take it?] Well, we took it to him...”

  • “... back then it was clear to me that if I say anything, I’ll end up there [in prison - ed.] as well. So I was silent. The things I knew, I didn’t tell. And it took a while – the first was that you basically went behind these kind of bars, they closed you up there, and we sat in a room with three blokes, and they kept asking things one over the other. I have this one picture burned in my memory – there was this big ashtray there like they have in pubs, and when we arrived it was empty, and when I left it was heaped with butt ends, they had nowhere to put them any more, they smoked like chimneys. I didn’t smoke back then, so I didn’t mind. They kept going on, one over the other... and then they took a break. Then the secretary made a tactical appearance and brought me some coffee and tea, if I wanted, and water, if I wanted, that they had gone to have lunch. And then she said: ‘Don’t you tell them anything.’ And I told her: ‘I don’t have anything to tell, I don’t know anything.’ And so she started, and she sat there discussing things with me for another hour, and she was there like a friend, all friendly like, and she disparaged them and said: ‘Don’t tell them anything, if you do know something. [Q: And she was there by punishment...?] Well, she was – how to say it – she was the one interrogating me afterwards, but in a friendly way. And then the others came back from their lunch and set into me full-tilt again, then they chucked me out and it was over.”

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    Přerov, 06.10.2017

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During the interrogation I constantly claimed that I hadn’t seen anything, heard anything, didn’t know anything. That saved me

Contemporary photo from ID registration sheet
Contemporary photo from ID registration sheet
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Karel Maier was born on 23 February 1957 in Přerov. His family did not agree with the Communist regime but never actively stood up against it. In the 1970s Karel Maier made the decision to actively resist the Communist regime. He mainly helped smuggle chemicals out of the Přerov Machine Works, which his friend Vladimír Hučín then used to prepare small explosives, with which he sabotaged Communist propaganda posters. Besides that he made crates from stainless steel in which Vladimír Hučín hid the weapons he used for sabotage operations. The friendship brought Karel Maier to the attention of State Security; he was interrogated twice, he and his family suffered from psychological pressure, and he was secretly surveyed by State Security until the fall of the Communist regime. Throughout the interrogations and threats he never wavered for a moment and never said anything against his friend. In the revolutionary week following 17 November 1989 he took part in all the public demonstrations against the regime that took place in Přerov. He started a business in the 1990s. In 2017 he received certification of having participated in the resistance against Communism.