JUDr. Jan Mečíř

* 1921

  • "How does it feel to hear that you're sentenced to sixteen years of prison?" "Well, as you can imagine, it's a blow. When the advocate was here, he said to my mum: 'They all have a suggested death sentence, but not all of them will receive it. Basically it works out that one or two with end on the rope, but I'll do all I can to keep him away from the hangman.' And my mum fainted. She collapsed and didn't recover for about seven or nine months. She just lay there, didn't eat, didn't stand up. But I didn't know any of that, because I didn't have any visits, so I couldn't find that out. That was all part of this reward system, that was for good behaviour - I was never one of those, I never had good behaviour, thus I never got any reward like that."

  • "If you could say who gave the verdict, what court it was and what the trial took place?" "Ústí-upon-Labe didn't have a regional court, that was in Litoměřice, so everything took place in Litoměřice, but it was under the name of the Regional Court of Ústí-upon-Labe. When they came for me and took me to Litoměřice, that's where I actually foujnd out I was arrested, they didn't tell me beforehand. They came for me, took me away, and it didn't occur to me that I would not be returning home. There were five of us on trial, former railway employees from Děčín: Vilém Truníček got eighteen years, František Beran seventeen, Jan Urban seventeen, Jaromír Babička got twenty years and I got sixteen. The trial took two days, the 15th and 16th of March 1955."

  • "What did they want of you during the inquiry, what were you supposed to own up to?" "First it was always: Talk about your activities, your hostile activities ofcourse. I said, that I didn't do anythng hostile, so how can I own up to something, if I don't know what. That went on for several months, and they got worse and more brutal. Many a time he would say: 'Comrade chief ordered me to give him your confession tomorrow morning, and I didn't have Christmas because of you, I couldn't celebrate New Year's Eve because of you, because I couldn't fulfill the chief's order.' That's why they got more and more brutal." "What sort of brutality was it, was it physical violence?" "One of them kept stressing that he should have got me a year ago, that I would have had my face messed up long ago. He stressed that. Also when I said something that he didn't like, he rushed at me waving his clenched fists in my face - I always waited for the punch, but it never came."

  • "I was accused and also charged with plans to blow up the bridge over Labe (Elbe). For the life of me I would never think of anything like that. I also heard what Průboj (Fighting On, a Czech regional newspaper of the time) wrote about me in Ústí, after the trial. They wrote I was planning to blow up the bridge in Děčín on the 1st of May, when a procession of children would be crossing it. Not even the StB made that up. It just wasn't like that. They didn't say which bridge over Labe it was supposed to be. The author of the article added that himself, to show how important he is and what all he could come up with. Just to disgrace me, to dishonour me. They were afraid of that the most, they said I controlled the masses. What Mečíř said, that was the law. I got on with people, they got on with me. As such, I was too dangerous. I controlled the masses - as such I was dangerous, they needed to get rid of me. And how else could they do it? By removing me to Lípa and then coming after me to arrest me."

  • "Do you have a creed for life, or some message you would like to pass on?" "When I look back at my life, I say to myself, there were good times, there were bad times, but thank God, I overcame them. Ofcourse, that isn't just to my credit, but also thanks to my parents and ofcourse I have never forgotten and do not forget and can never forget to thank Our Lord God. I start with that every day, several times a day I think of that, and I end each day with that. Pray and work. Ora et labora. If I could live in peace and calm right until the end, I would be happy. I really cannot wish for more: peace, calm, happiness. I think it also helps my health."

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    Česká Lípa, 25.09.2008

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„I was supposedly planning to blow up the bridge in Děčín on the 1st of May, when a procession of children would be crossing it.“

JUDr. Jan Mečíř in 1948
JUDr. Jan Mečíř in 1948
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Jan Mečíř was born on the 11th of December 1921 in Stará Paka as the only child of Bedřich and Marie Mečíř. His father worked on the railways his whole life, as a switchman, his mother stayed at home. The family moved to Česká Lípa soon after Jan Mečíř‘s birth, where the Czech spirit was slowly rising. Little Jan went to the Czech basic school there, he was one of the best pupils. Thanks to that he was accepted, without entrance exams, to the newly founded Czech State Reformed Grammar School in Česká Lípa, where he reached seventh class. That was in 1938 - the Czech inhabitants were forced to leave the border region, following the signing of the Munich Agreement. The family did not know where to go. In the end they were helped by relatives, and the family moved to Nová Paka, they spent the whole of the war in the nearby Roškopov. As a patriotically minded family, his mother never missed out the celebrations of the founding of Czechoslovakia and the whole family was active in the patriotic Czechoslovak Church, that was a time of great disillusionment. Young Jan Mečíř passed the control exam in latin and was accepted to the grammar school in Nová Paka, where he graduated with honours. Soon after, Jan was drafted into forced labour in the Austrian firm Ernst Heiken Flugzeugwerke Wien-Schwechat. He spent a year in Austria, before a friend from the job centre helped to get him moved to a job in Bohemia. The end of the war meant the re-opening of Czech universities. Jan Mečíř immidiately started his studies at the Faculty of Law of the Charles University in Prague, while retaining his work. He received his degree in 1950, graduating on the 8th of December 1950. After his studies, JUDr. (Doctor of Laws) Jan Mečíř continued to work at the railway as a dispatcher at the Děčín station. Nothing suggested his arrest by the StB (State Security), that would come to pass in just a few years. Until he was moved to Česká Lípa and then arrested by the StB during a meeting of dispatchers on the 7th of September 1954. Mečíř was placed in custody in Litoměřice, and there was he told that he would not be returning home. During the interrogation, several officers took turns trying to force a confession from him. They kept him in irons on all journeys to and from the interrogations for six months. He underwent many interrogations during the night, at the same time he was not allowed to sleep during the day. His trial took place on the 15th and 16th of March 1955, in Litoměřice. Jan Mečíř was, as one of a group of five railway employees, convicted of high treason and espionage and sentenced to 16 years of prison, to the loss of his civil rights for 10 years and was given a life ban from working in transportation. Mečíř spent time in several prisons and labour camps. He was taken from Litoměřice to Pankrác, then to Karlovy Vary, ending up in camp Nikolaj in the Jáchymov district, working the Eduard mine shaft. In June 1956 he succeeded in having his case reviewed, and without the verdict being actually invalidated, he was unexpectedly given freedom on the 20th of December 1956. He managed to get the verdict refuted a month later, on the 20th of January 1957. The other members of the group were also released in time. Seeing as the verdict was invalidated, Jan Mečíř was able to return to his work on the railways, but only as a switchman. In time and with the help of friends he reached the position of dispatcher and head of traffic. His only son was born in 1958, together with his wife they named him aslo Jan. His son successfully studied mechanical engineering and is currently mayor of Stružnice by Česká Lípa. Mečíř‘s life after his release was peaceful. In 1960, Mečíř started the building of his own house in Česká Lípa, helped by his parents. He did not neglect his lifetime hobbies, including esperanto, philately and numismatics, hiking and more. As he himself says, he lived a happy life in peace, and he is grateful for that. After 1989 he was called upon by the railway head office, where he worked for several years as a research worker. Jan Mečíř still lives in the house he built in the Sixties. Although he lives on his own, he does not have time to spare. Being the chairman, he takes part in regular meetings of philatelists and numismatics, he is a member of the Česká Lípa branch of the KPV (Confederacy of Political Prisoners) and last but not least, he is still active in his Church, where he has repeatedly held the elected position of vice-chairman of the Council of Elders of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church (Církev československá hustiská). How little free time Jan Mečíř has is easily shown by the fact that he regularly goes to sleep at three or four o‘clock at night. Jan Mečíř never forgets to thank his parents and God every morning and evening, that he is able to manage so many activities.