Such an exemplarily destroyed gulag family
Stáhnout obrázek
Ludmila Šeflová, née Šimková, was born in the native farm in Lipiny on 7 June, 1934. The Šimeks family kept a farm for centuries. During World War II, they were allegedly hiding guerrillas and paratroopers. Two fires occurred at the beginning of 1948 as a precursor to the coming misfortune. Václav Šimek, the father of the witness, refused to join the agricultural cooperative. The family was closely watched on the farm by the state security spies, among whom a brother-in-law, Jaroslav Šourek, was „distinguished.“ Václav Šimek Jr. served five years of basic military service in the Auxiliary Technical Troops. He returned home in 1955. The same year on 20 June, the secret police arrested Václav Šimek Sr. and four days later also the witness herself. Followed by three months of beating and humiliation in the custody of the secret police in Bartolomějská Street in Prague, the investigation led by Jan Brož. Ludmila Šeflová and her father were sentenced for high treason, and the witness left the court with the decision to serve ten years in prison. She went through the Ruzyne, Pankrác and Pardubice prisons and the correctional labour camp in Želiezovce, where she suffered severe spinal injury. In 1960 amnesty her father and she were released. They could not come back home to the nationalized farm, which was occupied by an agricultural cooperative. The state administration decided that she ought to live with her brother and his wife. In 1960, she married father´s former fellow prisoner, Josef Šefl. The witness was reportedly under police supervision until 1989. She had trouble locating and retaining her job, because employers could not bear to tolerate frequent interrogation of the secret police.
