The Pankrác Gallows

"All of us in the shared cell knew what time of the morning they had the executions. It was a rule at Pankrác that executions were from four to six o'clock. They let the dog loose in the courtyard before that. It had a long chain hooked on to some rope, so that it could run up and down the whole courtyard. It made a terrible racket when running, it was impossible to sleep with that going on. As soon as it stopped, we heard footsteps and along they came the for the executions. I had to clean up after those executed. I didn't have a clue at the time that they had executed four people and that one of them was a man I didn't know personally, but whom I had heard much of from my fellow prisoner Ruda Veselý."

• political prisoner, born 10th October 1925 in Vilémov
• his so-called kulak origin predestined his life post-February 1948
• December 1951, arrested for the illegal distribution of printed materials
• January 1952, sentenced to five years of high-security prison
• imprisoned mostly in the Jáchymov district, where he experienced tough disciplinary action
• active member of the Confederacy of Political Prisoners (KPV) in Havlíčkův Brod
• author of a book about forced collectivization and the persecution of political prisoners