“I was born on 4th November in Prague. My father was a post clerk, he was responsible for the railroad mail. My father begun as an attendant and that is where his journey and also my childhood began. His name was Antonín Čížek and my mother’s name was Barbora, born as Svobodová. They met when my father played football and my mother played handball. It was a sporty acquaintance. They got married and stayed together until death tore them apart, as people say.”
“I entered the job at the Headquarters of the Czech National Social Party in 1945, right after the basic school. During the First Republic, people were members of the Sokol, the Czech National Social Party and the Czechoslovak Church, it wasn’t the Hussite Church at that time. So I started working there and they allowed me to attend evening courses at a business school in Karlín. I started as a secretary and I went through all the departments before I became a clerk. I was there until March 1948 when most of the people left. It was pretty tough. We walked even to the toilets at a gunpoint so then the prison wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have already known.”
“There were several reasons. You should know that I am a traitor guilty of treason, same as captain Klos and the others. I can hardly imagine that someone from the headquarters of the Social Party would tell something to a seventeen year old girl, if he plotted against the government in any way, so that she can tell it to her girlfriends. Imagine Hora or Zenkl doing this. But they had quotas for the number of the arrested and that was it.”
“Sometimes they were tough and sometimes they weren’t. And I certainly wasn’t obedient. I managed, even with the handcuffs on, to smash the faces of those who laid their hands on me. I didn’t care about the consequences. I told myself: ‘There is a reason for what happened and whatever happens next, there is a reason for it.’ I was brought up in a way that everything is God’s will. I always told this myself when I thought that I couldn’t stand it any longer and I had this strange experience when I heard the voice within. It said: ‘Don’t be afraid, you are not alone.” And since then as if it all had been blown away by the wind. All the time you were afraid not to reveal anything about anyone. But they made it up themselves anyway. They copied the signatures using a glass, I saw that. These were horrible cases.”
“I think that people in general have the tendency to blame God for the suffering. I don’t. I think that He is constantly working and He created us for a certain reason. That is why He lets me hanging around here, because He thinks He might still need me for something. And when He doesn’t need me anymore, I will go. When I was in the hospital, the doctors were mad about me. I told them: ‘Don’t worry. I know you are doing your best, but if God decides to take me, He will. If I am supposed to be here some time more, you will succeed, but if I am not, there is nothing we can do about it.’ And I think I still live for a reason. My grand niece is now divorced and alone with two kids. They visit me quite often and I can be of any help. I have problems with my kidneys and spine as a result of the imprisonment. But I was hard. The doctor told me that I had to do exercises and I did. I exercised and exercised until I scratched my leg against the rusty iron bed. Then I had problems with that. But I managed to get over the spine injury so that I can still walk. People with the same injuries usually stayed on the wheelchair. Maybe it was because they were older. You recover from a lot of things when you are young, but I was really tough. There are still some bones missing in my hand after the injury, it was hanging loose by my side. But I gradually managed to move with it and use it. You shouldn’t be too soft with yourself.”
Eva Soukalová was born on 4th November 1930 in Prague-Michle to the post clerk Antonín Čížek and his wife Barbora Čížková, born as Svobodová. She lived a happy childhood because her mother was at home and dedicated her time to both the children. During the childhood, her world view was strongly formed by religious breeding both in the family and in the Sokol organization. The whole Čížek family was attending the Sokol regularly and the parents were members of the Czech National Social Party and the Czechoslovak Hussite Church. Eva’s father joined the resistance movement during the War. After the War he had serious health problems so Eva had to start working in 1945. She found a job at the office of the Czech National Social Party, where she worked until 1948. She witnessed the well known communist holdup when the employees were followed at a gunpoint even to the toilets. She was arrested on 10th of May 1949. Her parents found out about the arrest three weeks later when they received a parcel from the prison administration with torn and bloodstained clothes. In custody, she experienced severe physical and psychological abuse. The court with ‘Bursík and the group’ was held on 25th October 1949. Eva Soukalová was sentenced to eight years in prison. She passed through many prisons and labor camps: Pankrác, Kutná Hora, Červené Pečky, Molitorov etc. In Molitorov she suffered a serious arm injury. She was released on probation after more than four years. She worked in many workers’ and administrative positions. In 1956, she married Vítězslav Soukal and two years later they had two daughters: Helena and Eliška. Vítězslav died in 1978. Eva Soukalová lived together with her two daughters in Prague-Michel and was actively involved especially in the Czechoslovak Hussite Church.
