I was free under the Germans, I was free under the Communists and I am still free
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Jan Vlach was born on 26 December 1930 in Písek. His mother soon left him with foster parents in Mohuřice, where he grew up until 1936. For the next few years he lived with his aunt, in an orphanage and with his mother in Písek. Although he had other siblings, they all grew up separately. In 1948, together with his classmates, he participated in the distribution of leaflets accusing the Communists of killing Jan Masaryk. However, he was not prosecuted as a result of an amnesty granted by the incoming President Klement Gottwald. During his compulsory military service, which he started in 1950, he served as a paratrooper. After returning from the military service, he was unable to find permanent employment because of his anti-communist attitudes. He illegally delivered supplies for prisoners in the mines in Příbram. In 1956 Jan Vlach decided to emigrate together with his friend Stanislav Jelinek. They planned to cross the Ore Mountains near Horní Jiřetín into the then German Democratic Republic and then travel to West Berlin. Jan Vlach made it across the border, but was caught by German border guards near the nearby town of Sayda. Stanislav Jelínek was arrested just before the border in Czechoslovakia. Jan Vlach was handed over to the Czechoslovak authorities and sentenced to eighteen months in prison for his attempted emigration. He was sent to Jáchymov, to the Rovnost camp and then to the Vykmanov camp. From the beginning he refused to work, so he spent a total of four months in a prnal cell, and the rest of the time he spent alternately in isolation and in the penal ward. Because of this, he was not covered by the amnesty of 1 December 1957, so he had to serve his entire sentence. After his release, Jan Vlach worked in foundries as a casting extruder, in a quarry, in the coal mines and also earned a living as a crane operator. Until the 1980s, he remained under constant surveillance by the State Security Service in his work and leisure activities. After 1989 he was active in the Confederation of Political Prisoners.
