Jaroslav Pleva

"They took my father away and then State Security officers I used to meet in Trutnov searched our house. I never saw such meticulousness in my life. They turned every shirt, every shirt inside out and examined it, including the seams. They put everything suspicious on the table. They put there the coins my mother bought for me, my cash box, my scout knives, my alarm gun... I heard about State Security men that they were such thieves that what they didn't steal, they didn't have. But I have to say that there was an older white-haired gentleman in charge, he was definitely not from Trutnov, he had some higher rank, and those guys couldn't even take a pin. They left absolutely everything there and moved on."

"When my dad was in custody, they made him a hall guard so he wouldn't be in the cell all the time. And somehow - it's almost a miracle - my mum arranged with the prison bosses that we could see my dad. We came to the prison, and there was this circular big room that seemed to open into the corridors to the cells. Dad was on the other side. They had warned him that we were coming there. He waved at us, jumped on the bars, did a pull-up, waved again and he had to leave."

“One member of the committee, comrade headmaster Šváb told me that they’d let me study the school if I renounce my dad. If I renounce my dad! Imagine that, it was terrible. I remember sitting there, sweat pouring down, I could feel the sweat trickling. A lot was at stake, my whole future life was at stake. When I heard that, I refused without a doubt, I said that Dad had taken exemplary care of his family his whole life, that I loved him, and that I could never renounce such a person! And I left.”

“Someone rang. Because the flat was always locked, so we wouldn’t be taken by surprise. I went to open the door. It burst open. There were two stetsecs [State Security officers - trans.] with pistols in hand. They charged into the room, where they only saw Mum and me, so they charged into the kitchen - because they were no doubt familiar with the plan of the flat. Dad was standing by the stove. I rushed in behind the two stetsecs. I can see it as if it was today. They were aiming their pistols at Dad. ‘Hands up! Hands up!’ they yelled. Dad said: ‘Is this necessary?’ Well, it was. They handcuffed him, of course, and took him away.”

“Either we wouldn’t let the person in and we’d deal with the matter in the corridor outside, or if he had to go into the room or the kitchen, we tried to keep him inside the room. We had a big cupboard in the kitchen. There was some space behind it, where Dad stood and hid. It always worked out. Grandma had a bed in the kitchen - we lived there with our grandma. One time, that was that time when Kolařík was there, just imagine, when Kolařík stormed in and we couldn’t get Dad out, Grandma - his mother-in-law - tucked him into the bed. The whole time that bastard ripped through our clothes and so on, that whole time, Dad was tucked into the bed.”