Zdeněk Albert

* 1927

  • “We lied on mattresses. Everything was divided, bread was in rations. When the so called rebellion happened, the prisoners cried out: ,You red gestapo!‘ The chief was running around spanking them. Also escapes took place; one particularly pretty. An escort was handing over prisoners. The one, who did it, had to make an agreement, as when they were handling him, he ran out as a jet on the road, where suddenly a car went past. So he jumped in it and off he went. Then he sent clothing from Austria. Sadly there were only few such escapes.”

  • “In the morning a prison guard came waking us up. The prisoners pushed him out and chasing the informer began. There were also people, who were behind the fence for not fulfilling the norms, so they took it apart and shouted to come for them, and a havoc began. A prison guard ran behind the gate shouting at us to came back. None of us did. Only in the evening the handsome (first lieutenant Vašíček – editor´s note) with military assistance returned. They were shooting and throwing us out of the camp to where the kitchen was. Then there was nowhere to go, so we began to sing the anthem to protest. That was all. The one in charge of suppressing it was major Ryšavý (the head of prison camp administration- editor´s note). He ordered the camp management to count three hundred prisoners and labeled them organizers.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Prostějov, 05.10.2016

    (audio)
    duration: 02:10:01
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

To protest we sang our national anthem

Zdeněk Albert
Zdeněk Albert
photo: archiv pamětníka

Zdeněk Albert was born on 29 June, 1927 in Prostějov. At the age of four his father died due to the first world war injury. Two months prior to the second world war ending Zdeněk Albert was deployed to dig anti-tank trenches in Hranicko region. After liberation he volunteered to enter the national guard. Next he studied the officer academy in Olomouc and Zábřeh, and then as an instructor he was sent to Frývaldov and later Šumperk to become a supervisor in an intern camp. With his unit he also accompanied a transport of displaced Sudeten Germans to an American occupational zone in Germany. In 1949 with a group of friends from Prostějov they set up an anti-communist resistance group. They printed and spread anti-regime leaflets and prints and prepared to cross the borders. In 1952 the secret police arrested them and in October the same year Zdeněk Albert was sent to prison for high treason by the state court of justice. As a prisoner no. A09049 he went through the corrective labour camps near uranium mines in Jáchymovsko and Slavkovsko, before being released on 13 July, 1957. He spent a year recovering from the imprisonment effects. Then he could not find any job and finally became a miner in the Ostrava coal mines, where he worked until retirement. In 2016 he lived in Prostějov.