They wanted to burgle the People‘s Militia ammunition depot, but someone reported them
Stáhnout obrázek
Vladislav Palát was born on 31 March 1929 in the village of Jablůnka near Vsetín. His father was a legionary, decorated at Zborov, and supported the family from a small farm. The mother took care of the household, the parents had two sons and a daughter. Vladislav Palat completed primary an municipal schools and trained as a shop assistant in Vsetín. During the war the whole family joined the resistance. His older brother Jaromír was with the partisans in the Beskydy Mountains, the others took people across the border, hid persecuted people, passed on information and supplied the resistance fighters with food. Until February 1948 Vladislav worked on the family farm, then he had to work in the mine in Ostrava. In 1949, he enlisted in the army in Bratislava. His younger brother Karel was already imprisoned at that time for attempting an illegal armed crossing of the state border. After returning to civilian life, Vladislav Palat joined the activities of an anti-communist group founded by his brother Jaromír. The group was preparing for an armed struggle with the regime, and they planned to obtain weapons by breaking into an ammunition depot of the People‘s Militia. On the basis of denunciations, however, most of the group‘s members were arrested in February 1952; Vladislav Palát was not arrested until 28 April. The detention and interrogations took place in the infamous prison in Uherské Hradiště, where Vladislav Palát was subjected to physical violence, torture, hunger, cold and underwent several weeks of solitary confinement. The trial of the group of seven took place on 15-16 October 1952 in Uherské Hradiště. The defendants were assigned a lawyer only on the day of the trial and were not allowed to have any contact with family members during the entire period of their detention. The court handed down sentences for treason and unlawful arming ranging from 19 to 6 years. Brother Jaromír received the highest sentence, while Vladislav was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. At the same time, all their property was forfeited to the state, and his mother was deprived of her old-age pension (his father had already died during the war). Vladislav Palat was sent to the Jáchymov region, where he mined uranium in the Rovnost camp. He experienced devastating hygienic and working conditions, beatings and humiliation by the guards, and solitary confinement. In 1960, after a presidential amnesty, he was released. He was shunned by his neighbours in his native village, and harassment by the National Committee and the Labour Office forced him to move to the Žďár region, where he worked as a miner in Dolní Rožínka. Later, he worked as a food warehouseman in a hospital. Until November 1989, Vladislav Palát lived under the surveillance of State Security, and his children were prevented from studying at universities. Vladislav Palát was awarded the certificate of a participant in the anti-communist resistance.
