Robert Polách

* 1959

  • “His [Miroslav Matůšek’s - ed.] girl had run off with a classmate of mine, they were in Italy and they stayed there. That classmate had a sister in Australia, so he left to join her and the girl stayed in Italy, and on this impulse things started to mess up, and suddenly Matůšek was planning to go after her and his friends joined in. And so we started meeting and planning how to do it, and we even tried digging a bit, to see how long it would take to dig a meter. Our first idea was to go through the cellar. There’s a cellar at the bend, and it led all the way under the [border] fence.”

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    Valtice, Úvaly, 11.03.2014

    (audio)
    duration: 01:01:30
    media recorded in project Iron Curtain Stories
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I didn’t want to go to the crossing, I sensed that something would happen

Robert Polách in his youth
Robert Polách in his youth
photo: Jakub Konečný

Robert Polách was born in 1959 in the border village of Úvaly near Valtice. After completing primary school he attended a secondary school of agriculture in Prostějov. His whole life he worked in the meat industry in the local agricultural co-ops. In 1985 he and several friends decided to cross the border. Robert Polách managed to obtain permission for a trip to Yugoslavia, but in the end he helped others cross the border who did not have the permission. He then left for his holiday, but did not succeed in crossing over to Italy. Upon returning to Czechoslovakia he was arrested and sentenced to 10 months in prison. He served the sentence in Pilsen-Bory. He was released after six months on a pledge of trust provided by the agricultural co-op which he was employed at before his imprisonment. The witness lives in Úvaly to this day, in his free time he devotes himself to breeding.