Kurt Schmidt

* 1936

  • "When I worked in Staříč, I was asked in the car park by an unremarkable man, who introduced himself to me as Derkač and a State Security member, if I would give him a lift to Ostrava. I said, 'I'm not going directly to Ostrava, I'm going to Poruba, but I'm going through Ostrava because that's the way the roads are today. So if you want, sit down.' And so I was driving him, and he started pressing me, saying that I was coming into contact with a huge number of people, and that they needed to have a certain overview of who was reliable and stuff like that, and if I would sign the cooperation with State Security. I told him I wouldn´t. That didn't deter him, and so he went on to tell me what the advantages would be, that I would be encouraged to rise in my career, first of all, that if I had some minor mishap in the mine for which I might be sanctioned, they would do their best to see that those consequences and repercussions... He said, 'You're at huge risk, be aware of how many people are dependent on you.' I told him no. So then he started from the other side and said, 'Look, every State Security collaborator has some unwritten advantages. For example, we know about you that when you were at the Degasification and Dewatering Plant, that on the position at the Scientific and Technical Society of that branch you organized a whole series of wonderful theme trips abroad. You could continue doing that, we would help you to get that position. And besides, as a State Security collaborator, you'd get as much money in foreign exchange for the trips as you would ask for. The maximum amount and for as many days as you would wish. And not just once a year, you could go out three or four times if you had the opportunity and the time.' So I told him by no means. We got to Poruba. He was driving with me all the way to the main street in Poruba, he went with me all the way to my own house. And when he didn't persuade me, he was disappointed, and he said if I would at least recommend someone who could be persuaded, who would sign the cooperation. I said, 'I don't know such a person. I really don't know anybody. I can't advise you on that. You have to manage yourself.'"

  • "When I arrived there, I never went straight into the interrogation room, but I sat for an hour or so on a wooden bench that was opposite the window of the reception, but behind the separate door in the State Security area. I was sitting there until finally someone decided that I should move on. It was endlessly repeating the same thing over and over again there, as if they were testing my memory to see how many things I would say the same way for the fifth time, or how many things I would say differently. Somehow they wanted to catch and justify the untrustworthiness of what I was saying."

  • "Our soldiers had not yet arrived. The German army was retreating. The retreat, it seemed at first that some troops were retreating. So there were some motorized units retreating, they consisted of a few cars, but apart from that a large number of motorcyclists. So soldiers on motorcycles, they were riding on these motorcycles in double file, and they were crossing the whole square, and it was making a terrible racket and rattle. When these motorized troops, or soldiers, had passed through Vsetín, there came terror and dismay because suddenly cattle appeared, unmilked cows, which were spraying milk on the road. Behind them there were the normal manure wagons pulled by cows, with various wounded and disabled soldiers riding on them, who could no longer walk a kilometre on their own. On those wagons was sitting, for example, a tailor with an ancient sewing machine that the army had confiscated or stolen somewhere, repairing torn uniforms."

  • "I know it was sometime in the autumn. So when I compare the time details, I think it was in the autumn of the thirty-ninth year, when the synagogue was blown up totally. It was already after dark, and we ran out of our cottage into the yard first, then up the road, where all the other inhabitants of the semi-detached houses were also staying with us. All of them terribly shaken, frightened. There were at least twenty detonations, at intervals, another one, another one, another one. The materials from the synagogue flew to our garden and many of them landed on our roof. I know that the roof was being repaired afterwards, that there were chipped tiles, from the brick fragments that had flown down from the synagogue. Afterwards, when my mother and I left the street, we somehow said goodbye to the neighbours and there were no more explosions. We were all absolutely shaken by it. All the people in the neighborhood were afraid of what would happen next. That was the biggest question. What will happen next?"

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Ostrava, 01.02.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:52:00
  • 2

    Ostrava, 22.02.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:58:43
  • 3

    Ostrava, 09.03.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 02:13:08
  • 4

    Ostrava, 06.04.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:58:32
  • 5

    Ostrava, 20.04.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:54:23
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

They wanted me to sign the cooperation agreement

Kurt Schmidt, 1970´s
Kurt Schmidt, 1970´s
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Kurt Schmidt was born on 21 November 1936 in Vsetín. In March 1939 he witnessed the burning down of the synagogue in Vsetín. His father Ludvík Schmidt hid the family of the Jewish teacher Leopold Blau, who had lived in the synagogue, at home for several months. He also facilitated their escape across the border. After the liberation, Kurt Schmidt saw a member of the Revolutionary Guards (RG) murder an old German. In the 1950s he studied geology at the Faculty of Mining and Geology of the Mining University (nowadays Technical University of Ostrava). After graduating in 1960, he joined the Degasification and Dewatering Plant (ZDO) at Ostrava-Karviná Mines (OKD). He worked as head of the degasification plant. During the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops, he organized the writing of anti-occupation signs at the plant. Because of this, he had to quit his position in 1969. From 1970 he worked as the company manager of the Staříč Mine. During the normalisation period, he was repeatedly persuaded by members of State Security (StB) to sign the cooperation statement. He kept refusing to do so. In the early 1980s, he was investigated for endangering the safety of mining operations. In order to be able to get him acquitted, they again wanted him to sign the cooperation. He refused, but was not convicted anyway. After the Velvet Revolution, he ran his own business and was involved in municipal politics. In 2022 he was living in Ostrava.