lifestories

Gustav (Augustin) Bubník was born on November 21, 1928 in Prague, former Czechoslovakia. In the years of 1946 - 48 he studied commercial Academy in Prague. In 1948 - 62 he played ice-hockey, was a member of the Czechoslovak national team, 1948 silver medal from the winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz (Switzerland) and 1949 golden medal from the World championship in ice hockey, Stockholm (Sweden).

Jindřiška Havrlantová was from a farming family. She was arrested with her father on March 8, 1954 and sentenced to 18 years of prison. She was released on February 20, 1963.

Julie Hrušková assisted with illegal border crossings in the communist Czechoslovakia. She was accused of espionage and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. She miscarried after a brutal interrogation in Brno. She was released on the amnesty on May 9, 1960.

Vlasta Jakubová was born on March 13, 1925 in Oždany, Slovakia. During World War II she was engaged in the Czech resistance as a contact to her uncle, Colonel Josef Robotka. After February 1948, she joined the anticommunist resistance, again working with her uncle. She was arrested for this “treasonous” activity on August 6, 1949 and given an eighteen year prison sentence.  Her uncle, General Josef Robotka was sentenced to death and executed in 1952. Vlasta stayed at Cejl, Znojmo, Ruzyně and Pardubice prisons and work camps at Minkovice and Chrastava. In 1959 she was set free on probation.

Zdeněk Kovařík was accused of high treason in a show trial called „Group JU1“ and sentenced to nine years of prison. He had to work in the uranium forced labor camps in Jáchymov until 1955 – he spent two and half years in the labor camp „L“ called also „Liquidation camp“ and two years in the forced labor camp Nikolaj.

Jozef Kycka worked as a civil employee in the uranium mines in Jáchymov since 1948. He was sentenced to eighteen years of prison in the same camps because of meeting his old friend who worked as a secret agent. He was released based on the amnesty in 1960. Mr. Kycka died of cancer in 2009.

Květoslava Moravečková was a teacher in a nursery school. She was arrested in 1952 because of hiding a secret agent. She was sentenced to ten years of prison.

Jan Pospíšil is the oldest of our narrators. Born in 1916 he witnessed most of the 20th century. Working for a non-communist minister brought him to prisons and the Jáchymov uranium grinder. He was sentenced to 20 years of political captivity.

Hubert Procházka was arrested for eleven years of prison as a member of a group “Beneš Scout Revolt.” He also worked three years in the so called Tower of Death where uranium ore was milled in the Jáchymov labor camp “L.”

Drahomíra Stuchlíková was born on 19 December 1919 in Prague, the Czech Republic. She worked as a bookkeeper in a German-Czech Company and later in the Czechoslovak Chamber of Commerce. She was arrested on 6 June 1949 because of printing information leaflets. She was sentenced to 13 years of prison.

Hana Truncová was born in a trading family in Teplice in 1924. She was arrested in 1951 because of assisting at illegal border crossings in the communist Czechoslovakia. She was also printing leaflets against the Communist Party after 1948. She was sentenced to thirteen years of prison. She was released in 1960.