"The oldest inmate on the bloc (Blockälteste) was a kind-of commandant of that particular block, a representative of the self-government of the block. We were enormously lucky to have Max, 'the safe cracker' in this position on our block. We found out that he'd been sentenced to twelve years in prison by the courts of the Weimar Republic. This meant that he had to have committed grievous bodily harm. But as a man, he was great."
"He was, quite understandably, completely gone because he'd been imprisoned there for a long time already. When he stood in front of us, he swayed back and forth on the tips of his feet and although he always claimed that he wanted to behave in a humane way to us, whenever there was some transgression, he chased us around the block just like the SS men. Max never did this. What's interesting is that when I got injured in some sports game, when an SS man came he said: 'Hinlegen, rollen'. So we had to line up in very tight formations – just like the German military formations. They marched in very short distances which meant that if one of them lifted his foot just a bit too late, he got kicked by the man behind him. In such a tight formation, if you lay down, you have to protect your face and somebody unintentionally kicked me in the knee with a heavy military boot. My knee, of course, inflamed and became more and more swollen."
"I had a rigorous, sort-of a military upbringing. That's why I voluntarily joined the national militia that guarded and protected the bridges around Pilsen against the Germans. This was during the mobilization. I even brought a couple of my friends with me to the militia. Everything west of Pilsen was under military surveillance but there were a couple of villages on the outskirts of Pilsen that were predominantly German. If you know Pilsen a little bit, you know there is the Litice village just across the river that flows bellow the Bory prison. That village was German. The other villages stretching all the way to Klatovy were Czech."
"'Fuchs, (the student nick name of Mr. Vlach – note by the author) get up, the Gestapo is here'. So I put on an old pullover and a pair of trousers, on top of that a coat and that's when a member of the SS came inside to drive us out. I still held the hanger in my hand. I thought about what to do with it. I threw it back in and luckily I didn't miss. If I had accidentally hit the SS man instead, that idiot might have actually opened fire at us. One of them really began shooting there. Then they took us away to Ruzyně."
"When I arrived at the Gestapo, the receptionist told me to wait a moment. He said that there was a young man from some village who wanted to report something. The receptionist told him that this was the political police – that they only dealt with political matters. The guy insisted, telling him that this was political. It had something to do with his father. He came to report on his own father. I'd shoot that guy right on the spot. Even the Gestapo receptionist was quite disgusted with him. He told him: 'Well, I believe that a son should under any circumstances stand by his father'. This is what that German said. But finally he let him go inside."
Ing. Dr. Josef Vlach, DrSc., was born on 20 September, 1919, in Pilsen. After he completed his primary and secondary education, he initiated his studies of mechanical and energy engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague in 1937. During the mobilization in September 1938, he joined the national militias patrolling the bridges in the surroundings of Pilsen – guarding them from the Sudetenland Germans. Being a student, he took part in the funeral of Jan Opletal on 15 November, 1939. As a consequence, he was arrested on 17 November, 1939, in the Hlávkova College and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was held in this camp that is located close to Berlin until June 1940, when he was released. After the war, he continued in his university studies and gained a degree in engineering (Ing.) in 1946. In 1949, he attained a doctoral degree in technology (Dr.) and in 1964 a natural-sciences doctoral degree (DrSc.). He worked in the Energy Research Institute until 1983 and later in the Energy Fuels Research Institute. At the same time, he taught at his alma mater, the Czech Technical University in Prague. Since 1972, he‘s been a court expert witness in the field of energy. He retired in 1987 but continues to work as an expert witness. He currently lives in Prague.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
