Miroslav Valter

* 1941

  • “It was a night shift. I was in service for only half a year. I didn't shoot with a 58 submachine gun in the military. I didn't know how to load it or cock it, nothing. And so you are bored on night duty. Nothing happens. You're just staring into space. I played around with the submachine gun to see how it worked. I overfired twice, and my cartridge got stuck. It wasn't until the third time I cocked it that the breech slipped out of my hand, and it loaded. I tried a few more times and found I had to release it. In about two weeks, there was an escape. Well - it didn't seem like an escape at first. I saw three figures approaching the first strip where the dogs were running. Where the barbed wire was. Then the dogs ran, behind them was a fence, a sniper zone... The dogs didn't react to them, they ran towards them, but they didn't bark. So I thought they were dog handlers. I continued to talk to other towers on the phone. That's when I found out they were jumping over the fence, and the dogs were still not doing anything. They ran to the next fence. That's when I flew out and shouted, 'Stop! Stop, or I'll shoot!' And [I shot] into the air. By the time he was halfway through his innings, I was already shooting at him. I trembled like this. Those bullets of mine... Later, when they were doing the reconstruction, they found the line where he was sneaking, and those bullets of mine were flying fifty centimetres away from him. I supposedly shot his heel off. He ran away.”

  • "When I was there for about half a year, there was an escape. Unfortunately, that also involved me. I served on the tower in the section where the convict was trying to escape. I was forced to shoot. When the shift was over, I was trembling. You know, to shoot. There's shoot and shoot. I only remember his head with that boat. I didn't see anything else. And you have to shoot. It's like the military. Before they took me, I had to swear so and so. If I hadn't shot, I'd have gone to prison, maybe like him. So I shot. Luckily I didn't hit him, he ran away. Supposedly I only shot his heel."

  • “There were about six murderers. But… to tell the truth, I… how should I say it… Over the years that I've served there, the few decades that I've worked there, I've gotten used to those people. We saw each other every day. We solved work problems together. We didn't see it as - he's the prisoner, and I am the warden. We just had completely different problems. Let's say the boiler broke - how do we fix it? Or the electricity went out - how do we fix it? The heating duct broke - how do we fix it? Things like that. When I was doing inspections, when I came and saw, for example, a compote glass full of coffee, i.e. tea, their 'magorák', as they called it, I didn't break it. I just said, 'Guys, hide it. If I see it next time, I'll break it.' They even let me have a sip of the 'magorák'. I took a sip, and I say: 'Ugh, it's bitter.'”

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    Karlovy Vary, 22.03.2022

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    délka: 01:16:10
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I was sworn in, I had to shoot

As a warden in Vykmanov prison, 1975
As a warden in Vykmanov prison, 1975
zdroj: witness archive

Miroslav Valter was born on December 7, 1941, in Prague to a family of a car mechanic. During the Prague Uprising, he lost his father, Miroslav Valter Sr., who was shot by members of the Armed SS on May 7, 1945. His mother soon found a new partner, Ukrainian Michal Popovič, who came to Prague with the Svoboda‘s Army. In the fall of 1945, the family left for the West Bohemian Sudetenland, where they moved to several different residences, including Teplice, Kyselka near Karlovy Vary and Radošov. Miroslav Valter trained as a toolmaker in Nejdek and completed basic military service with radio technicians in Božice and Chrudim. He worked as a maintenance worker at the West Bohemian Springs in Kyselka and the Military Forests and Estates. In 1973, he joined Vykmanov prison as a warden. Half a year after starting, a prisoner attempted to escape while he was on duty at the watchtower. Miroslav Valter shot at the prisoner multiple times, but he still managed to escape. He worked in the prison until 1996, usually as a supervisor of the prisoners‘ work in the boiler house. According to his words, he had good relations with the convicts and treated them fairly. As a result, he was trusted during the post-November 1989 prison riot and also passed checks. After his retirement, he worked in a locksmith shop in Ostrov nad Ohří and as a porter in Škoda factories.