Rudolf Rudolf

"Na buzerplatzu byl nástup, na nákladním autě tam přivezli ty, které postříleli, vyhodili je na to nástupiště, my jsme se museli seřadit do čtyřstupů a kolem dokola chodit mezi těma mrtvolama, a když někdo sundal čepici, tak okamžitě dostal korekci, musel týden nebo čtrnáct dní být v korekci za to, že těm mrtvým projevil úctu. No byl to tsrašný pohled, když tam timrtví leželi na zemi a my jsme kolem nich museli chodit. No já na to vzpomínám, a spousta lidí by si to měla uvědomit, jenže doba je taková, že se na to zapomíná a dává se možnost na to zapomenout, pomalounku ale jistě…"

"Takže jsem normálně maturitu nedodělal, protože ve čtvrtém ročníku si pánové estébáci vzpomněli, že na to nemám nároky, protože jsem dělal letáky, mě normálně zatkli, uvěznili. Pokud chcete vidět nebo slyšet, jak to celé probíhalo, tak je to skutečně horor, kterému se nedá snad ani uvěřit. Já jsem prostě na dušičky v roce 48 jel za tetou na tu samotu, a asi kolem půlnoci, víc ne, se objevili ve dveřích čtyři estébáci, měli samopaly namířené proti mně, aniž by něco řekli, tak mě sebrali, naložili do auta a odvezli do Loun. V Lounech jsem byla asi tak čtyři hodiny na policejní stanici, a odtud mě potom deportovali do Mostu do státní budovy StB, kde jsem prodělal prakticky celou neděli až ještě do noci do dovu hodin."

“There are a myriad explanations for why the whole thing leaked. One thing is that members of the group remembered that someone had seen them when they were pasting up the leaflets in the night. They knew him and he probably knew them as well. The second option of how the other members of the group were leaked is the following: When they arrested Bohouš Fereš after work, they were said to put him in a car and take him into the forests near the borders, where they played out a pretend ambush by another resistance group, which would take him across the border. And he was supposed to tell them the names of the other members, that they’d help us so we wouldn’t get into trouble. And so they’d free all of us. We didn’t want to believe it. Apparently, they sprang the ambush, started shooting at the escort, with blanks of course. People were supposedly falling to the ground as if dead, and they were even supposed to put a car on fire. They dragged Bohouš into their own car and took him to the border. Bohouš fell for it and gave them our names.”

“We wanted to use the weapons we’d procured against Communist bigwigs. They attended congresses and election meetings in Louny and the surrounding area. We chose a place in Panenský Týnec, where the meetings were held. It had the most suitable terrain for an ambush. It never took place, but it was planned. We had four pistols. Fereš had about four hand grenades, and Kadeřábek had one other old pistol.”

“On All Soul’s Day 1948 I went to Srbeč to visit relatives. When I got on to the bus and sat down on the back seat, I noticed that the whole journey all the way to Řevničov we were being followed by a black car. That made me suspicious. In Řevničov I switched buses, and the black car was tailing us again. I got out in Srbeč and the car drove past me. And it headed to the settlement where I was going to visit my relatives. Before I set off there, I went to another uncle who lived on the square in Srbeč; I had four pistols borrowed from him. I reckoned it’d be better to give them back because I suspected that someone was on our track. I returned the pistols and carried on to the settlement on foot. I didn’t see the black car anywhere. But I saw it again in the night when they came to arrest me. That was also pretty funny. When I slept, I was covered by a duvet that was so full of feathers that it wasn’t even possible to cover oneself with it. Around two in the night the light went on, I was still sleeping, and two men with SMGs stood by the door and two more stood by my head. They were aiming at me and they told me to get up and put my hands behind my head. I wasn’t able to get up from under the heavy duvet without using my hands. They let me put my hands down, so I managed to get up somehow. My uncle stood at the back, white as a sheet, no one knew what was going on. They loaded me into the car and took me first to Louny to the gendarmerie.”

“There’s a huge difference between bread today and back in those days. The bread we eat today, we wouldn’t have given even to the pigs. Such fragrance and taste. It would last a fortnight or so, the older it was, the tastier. Rolls were all crackly, now they’re like chewing gum. You can’t even ear it. People today don’t have what to compare to, but I grew up in a bakery, I know. You just can’t compare it...”

“It was really tough work in Horní Slavkov. The shaft was constantly leaking water. We couldn’t get changed. The worst were the trips from the camp to the shaft, when the weather was bad. We passed through a fenced corridor. Between the corridors we were escorted by guards with dogs. When it rained, we had to wade through sticky mud. We had to hold each other by the waist - when one fell down, everyone else followed him down into the mud. The way they behaved to us was dreadful as well. It was really bad there.”

“When February 1948 came, we told ourselves it couldn’t go on like this, that we had to do something. And because we had a cyclostyle at the Defence Union, we started making leaflets. The leaflets contained an appeal to the citizens of Louny not to let themselves be manipulated. To remember Masaryk and Beneš. They stated: ‘Defend freedom and stand up against the violence that is in store for us.’ Printing leaflets by cyclostyle was hard work, not like today. First you had to write on to the foil on a machine. Then you put the foil into the cyclostyle, which had a cylinder with ink, and that inked it. The foil had to be removed and inked again after every copy. Before it dried, it smudged, so we were all dirty from it. But we made some hundred to hundred and fifty leaflets and we put them into normal envelopes. We wrote out the addresses according to the phone book, and we distributed them away.”

“Šebek was his name, he was an officer, he was acquainted with our friend Bohumil Fereš, and he talked us into forming a Defence Union. It was a group of four people. The interesting thing was that straight off he gave us the keys, and we had access to all the weapons. There were rifles, grenades, and everything. And once a week Šebek taught us to disassemble weapons, he taught us military instructions, and the principles of military training.”