František Černý

* 1932

Political prisoner in the 1950‘s (ČSR), Political prisoner in the 1960‘s (ČSSR), Emigrant, Agent of the western secret services (cold war), A 1948 – 1989 emigrant/refugee
25. 2. 1948 - Communist coup d‘état in ČSR, 1948 - 1955 - Politic lawsuit in the Stalin age, 23. 2. 1949 – Beginning the forced agricultural collectivisation, 26. 5. 1946 – The last “free” parliamentary election in Czechoslovakia
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    Arrest

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    duration: 01:41
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    “When I was at home I decided to visit my uncle in Brno. He greeted me, but he pretended to go do some shopping and then turned me into the police. All of the sudden, I saw from the window that the street was swarming with policemen. I had a revolver with me, and I hid it inside the toilet water tank and I walked out of the house as if nothing happened, with my forged identification card, and they stopped me in the doorway. I was surprised and I gave them the ID card and I hit one of them in the face and I kicked another one and I wanted to run away, but it was not possible with so many guns aimed at you. Then I was taken to Prague and the one whom I had hit asked me whether I was hungry and I said that I was, and he gave me a salami and he told me: ‘See, you hit me with your fist, and I give you salami and bread rolls.’”

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    In the prison cell

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    duration: 07:15
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    “Imagine a basement with about twenty cells, and they put me in there and they watched me. They tied me by my leg in the corner of the room, and I didn't even attempt to escape, but one day the watchman did not lock the door of my cell, so I jumped after him and pulled out the tape from his typewriter. He said: "Read it, and you have to sign it so that we know that you have read it."

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    Espionage

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    duration: 00:26
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    "They still could not believe that I had been there for a whole year and had not been doing any espionage. I was not interested in that. I had a timetable with me in order to know when my train was going to leave, not because I was there to spy."

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    ?, 24.05.2015

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    duration: 05:36:06
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    Hodonín, 29.01.2016

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    duration: 04:37:51
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I was born in a backwards country

Černý František, 1951
Černý František, 1951
photo: Archiv pamětníka, dodal Jakub Konečný
photo: Archiv pamětníka, dodal Jakub Konečný
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František Černý was born April 6, 1932 in Klenovice in the Haná region. He came from a very poor family. His parents had a small farm, and his father became a member of the Communist Party after the war. When he was being forced to join the Unified Agricultural Cooperative in the 1950s, he left the Party, and František was expelled from grammar school as a result of that. František decided to leave the country, and together with his friend they managed to get to Austria, where he underwent training in the CIC. František lived in Austria for five years, but he missed his homeland. Every year - mostly on Christmas - he was therefore illegally crossing the border back to Czechoslovakia. One day he was caught and accused of espionage. He spent a year in detention pending trial and then he was sentenced to sixteen years of imprisonment in the Leopoldov prison. He was released earlier in amnesty. František attempted to escape the country again and he was imprisoned for the second time, this time in the Mírov prison. After his release during the Prague Spring he worked as a labourer. Presently, he lives in Hodonin and has one daughter.  

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