Josef Husek

“The main reason why I was arrested is that they found two leaflets, as they called it, during one of the regular searches. Every time they searched us, we had to put our hands up. They searched everything, including our pockets. In my pockets they found two papers. One was a letter that the Holy Father wrote to us – the Czech priests – where he encouraged us to stay strong and kind. It was a very devout and nice letter. It could have hardly irritated anybody. So this was the first anti-state leaflet. The second one was a message from Virgin Mary. It was an appeal to keep our identity, to not be comrades but maintain solidarity and stay priests. It was an encouragement for those who were bullied like we were. Those were the two leaflets that were found during the anti-state Operation K. For those two pieces of paper, I ended up in jail and found to have an anti-state stance” (Interviewer: “An element or an agent?”)”That’s all nice and good but not exactly my case. Well, I was found to have an anti-state attitude and therefore I was arrested and sentenced later on. The sentences ranged from 10 years imprisonment to death by hanging.” (Interviewer: “high treason?”) “Yes, high treason!”

“I got a new pair of work trousers, my parents bought them for me. My supervisor told me exactly where to go and what to do there. When I came there I was told to take as many bricks as I could and to follow the other workers. I took my new trousers on but the boys warned me that I would ruin them completely. But I told them that I got them for work so it was alright if they got a bit worn. The boys asked me all kinds of questions, such as where I had been or what I had done before I came to jail. I would tell them that I had always wanted to be a teacher. Actually the truth was that I had desired to become a catechist so I could say that I had wanted to be a teacher. I wouldn’t tell everybody that I met that I was a priest because if I did, they would start talking about what church they had seen and where they had seen it and that would be all we would talk about. We wouldn´t have anything else to talk about. So I would tell them that I had been a teacher and everybody would swear, curse and grumble in my presence and we understood each other and everything went just fine. When they were swearing, I remained silent because I was used to ask God for forgiveness in my thoughts when somebody used God’s name in vain.”