Book Feature The Fastest Game in the World: Hockey & the Globalization of Sports (by Bruce Berglund)

[Bruce Berglund]

BTW: I did a story on the 1950 Czechoslovak team for the National Public Radio program only a game. A good friend of mine who is an actor in Prague read sections of a player memoir for the story.

Hockey, Politics And 'Treason': The 1950 Czechoslovakia National Team

 

[Theokritos]

I'm confused because the following two passages seem to be at odds:

One of the players later stated in his memoir that the Soviets were behind the arrests, but there is no proof of that.
(...)
To your point "I would assume that the Czechoslovak Communists were distrustful enough to act on their own behalf," that was not the case. The minutes of the state hockey committee show that Czechoslovak hockey officials were willing to subordinate themselves to the Soviets

 

[Bruce Berglund]

Sorry. To clarify: There is no proof that the Soviets signaled the Czechoslovak government or the StB to arrest the hockey team. What the hockey committee documents show is that Czechoslovak hockey officials were willing to wholly subordinate their training and on-ice strategy to the Soviet model. Immediately after the Communist takeover in 1948, Czechoslovak sports officials began adopting the Soviet state-professional model. So teams like LTC Prague, which once operated as autonomous clubs, were absorbed into state-run factories, the police or military.

 

[Theokritos]

Sorry. To clarify: There is no proof that the Soviets signaled the Czechoslovak government or the StB to arrest the hockey team. What the hockey committee documents show is that Czechoslovak hockey officials were willing to wholly subordinate their training and on-ice strategy to the Soviet model. Immediately after the Communist takeover in 1948, Czechoslovak sports officials began adopting the Soviet state-professional model. So teams like LTC Prague, which once operated as autonomous clubs, were absorbed into state-run factories, the police or military.

Thanks for the clarification. My point "that the Czechoslovak Communists were distrustful enough to act on their own behalf" was in regard to the crackdown on the hockey players. You've put it very concisely in that radio piece linked above: "The communists were still new in terms of having power in Czechoslovakia, they had to demonstrate that nobody, including the world champion hockey players, was excused from 'socialist justice.' " They didn't need an order from Moscow to do dismantle the team, they had reasons of their own to do that (as despicable as those reasons were).

 

[Theokritos]

The minutes of the state hockey committee show that Czechoslovak hockey officials were willing to subordinate themselves to the Soviets, just as they had done with the Nazis ten years earlier. "We have to stop believing the myth that we taught them hockey," said one official in a meeting.

What makes this even more absurd is that the Soviet players themselves would basically state just that in their memoires and retrospects: to a significant degree, the Czechoslovaks did teach them hockey.

 

[Bruce Berglund]

Before Prague LTC came to Moscow, the Latvians taught the Russians hockey. But they don't get the credit.

 

[Theokritos]

Before Prague LTC came to Moscow, the Latvians taught the Russians hockey. But they don't get the credit.

True. Though it's a bit surprising Dinamo Riga didn't do better than they did in the first years of the Soviet league. They were a good and respectable team, but didn't challenge for the title. I guess it shows just how strong the fundamentals (in particular skating) were that those Russian bandy players had when they switched to Canadian hockey.

 

[DN28]

Yes, that is an important section of the book. I spent a lot of time in two archives researching that episode. The National Archive in Prague holds the court records for the hockey players' trial, along with the letters that the players' families wrote to the president asking for clemency. The archive of the Communist state security forces, known in Czechoslovakia as the StB, had the records of their players' individual interrogations.

There is a lot of material. But what doesn't exist (or at least has never been found) is a smoking-gun document explaining why the government targeted its world championship national hockey team. One of the players later stated in his memoir that the Soviets were behind the arrests, but there is no proof of that.

What the documents do show is that the case against the players was not fabricated. They were discussing emigration with each other, and they were in contact with an American officer at the US embassy, who planned to create a Czechoslovak team in exile. The question the documents do not show is which player informed on his teammates. For Czechs who write about this episode, that is the bigger question.

We do know that the Czechoslovak government was embarrassed by previous defections, such as the tennis player Drobný. Just a week before the hockey players were due to leave, figure skater Alena Vrzáňová had stayed in London after winning the world championship.

To your point "I would assume that the Czechoslovak Communists were distrustful enough to act on their own behalf," that was not the case. The minutes of the state hockey committee show that Czechoslovak hockey officials were willing to subordinate themselves to the Soviets, just as they had done with the Nazis ten years earlier. "We have to stop believing the myth that we taught them hockey," said one official in a meeting.

What makes you think that the case against the players wasn't fabricated? Players were indeed discussing the emigration - all the time throughout 1948 to 1950. After all, players were receiving many offers from Swiss, British and even North American clubs/organizations every time they played outside their home country. But the case didn't just rest on unlawful emigration, they were convicted of espionage for Western powers and of high treason. Or is that not the case? I do believe it is... so could you explain it a little more what you meant?

No player intended to travel to 1950 World Championship and stay there afterwards. Players, who wanted to escape from the communist makeover of Czechoslovakia, had already left. Marek, Sláma, Oldřich Zábrodský... That is not to say that some players wouldn't necessarily come back from London. It's certainly possible that a player or two would... But every single player denied this accusation not just during the trial but also decades after...

I think it's important to recognize that the content of official state documents regarding this case was made up the members of the State security (StB.. but maybe it was a different abbreviation and name in 1950..). Players were tortured during interrogations. I think one player basically lost hearing during this.. State security agents just wrote whatever they were ordered to write from the authorities above. Trial itself was a joke even for standards of the communist regime. The process lasted only two days, it was completely secret hearing where not even family members were allowed to sit and observe the trial, let alone the members of the press. No witnesses were allowed at the court. There was no practical way for the players to defend themselves.. or just say goodbye to their families once this showtrial ended.

Maybe I'm totally wrong since I haven't studied this topic as much as you but right now, I think you're confusing that American officer and the idea of creating the Czechoslovak team in exile. That idea was proposed to players already in December 1948 in Davos during Spengler Cup by the people from LTC Prague who had already emigrated - primarily Jaromír Citta (1930s LTC manager), but there was also Josef Maleček (1930s LTC player and arguably the best hockey player in Europe before the war). Citta, Maleček and others however did not think through the details of whats and hows.. Players voted and almost all of them declined the offer. What is important to note here, is that the players weren't secretive about this meeting and voting. The communist government of Czechoslovakia knew about this offer and discussion already before the departure to Stockholm for the 1949 World Championship.

That American living in Prague (I don't remember his name..) was acquainted with Gustav Bubník through, if I remember correctly, Bubník's sister who worked with the American. Bubník then in one occasion introduced Bohumil Modrý to that American citizen.. I don't think there was more to it. I could be wrong but from what I've read they just met once, and there was certainly no plan whatsoever of that American to somehow create the Czechoslovak team in exile.. Again, that was only Citta's and Maleček's idea. Deeper connection of the American, Bubník and Modrý was just made up by the State security agents.

Modrý himself, by the way, was not even part of the CSR nomination for the '50 London. He was retired from international competition and planned to stop playing hockey and only focus on his career in architecture.
____________________________________

Overall, there is a lot of myths surrounding this dark episode of the Czech hockey. A typical Czech fan would say that the Soviets orchestrated the whole thing but there is zero evidence to this claim. I can't picture Tarasov (who surely had plenty of enemies within the Soviet communist party) or even Chernyshev (who I think was not even a communist) how they're forcing the KGB agents to force StB agents to bust the whole Czechoslovak national team 4 years before they themselves entered the international competition.. It's just nonsense, unfortunately it's some players themselves (Konopásek, Bubník.. I think..) who whispered these, frankly baseless, accusations.

A second myth touches on the role of Vladimír Zábrodský. A top Euro player of the 1940s, the leader, captain and also later a playing coach. Zábrodský was not part of this made-up "conspiracy against the state", he was not convicted and didn't end up in working camps like most of others. Therefore you can meet some Czechs who would tell you that it was Zábrodský who somehow "spied" on his teammates and "informed" the State security about something... But again, there is no proof of this theory. Furthermore, these people also conveniently forgot, or don't know, that there were other members of the team who also escaped the prison. From memory, those were 3 or 4 Moravian players: young Vlastimil Bubník, a future hockey star in Europe who was a part of 1950 nomination , Václav Bubník, Vladimír Bouzek, very successful coach later in 50s and 60s. What the Moravian players and Zábrodský had in common, was that they hadn't participated in drinking in that pub called "U Herclíků" after they had furiously come back from the airport. Players got drunk and shouted anti-communist, anti-Gottwald remarks in the pub and in the street. Agents came in the late afternoon or evening and busted them.... The point is: Zábrodský was not the only one of the team who was not convicted. Also why would Zábrodský destroy his own team, his own players, his own friends, his own livelihood is another question that these people can't answer to.

My take on why happened what happened? Communists became increasingly paranoid of more elite sportsmen defecting. As it was said, Alena Vrzáňová won some figure skating championship in London just like a week before. The 2 of the best Czech tennis players (Drobný and Černík) also defected. A couple of hockey players I mentioned above emigrated. 1930s hockey star Josef Maleček emigrated.. And I'm sure there were more athletes emigrating that just this (maybe some soccer players?). This was bad enough for the propaganda, but if the nation's beloved team, "the World Champions", were also to move to the West, that would be a total disaster for the people who had literally invested their own lives into building up and promoting the Soviet style' totalitarian regime.

It must have been a quick action. Someone, probably the minister Kopecký who had the sport agenda under his jurisdiction, gave an order. This would explain why the trial was so secretive and so fast compared to all those years-long showtrials with other "conspirators against the state", which were heavily publicized for the propaganda purposes.

 

[Bruce Berglund]

True. Though it's a bit surprising Dinamo Riga didn't do better than they did in the first years of the Soviet league. They were a good and respectable team, but didn't challenge for the title. I guess it shows just how strong the fundamentals (in particular skating) were that those Russian bandy players had when they switched to Canadian hockey.

Exactly! The Latvians learned what the Czechs and Canadians would later.

The first evidence I found of the Russians beating up on more experienced hockey players came in 1907. The St. Petersburg Skating Club traveled to Berlin to play against two local clubs. The Russians won by a combined score of 36-0.

 

[Theokritos]

Exactly! The Latvians learned what the Czechs and Canadians would later.

The first evidence I found of the Russians beating up on more experienced hockey players came in 1907. The St. Petersburg Skating Club traveled to Berlin to play against two local clubs. The Russians won by a combined score of 36-0.

In bandy that is? Or did they switch to the game with the puck for two matches (as was not unusual in Europe back then)?

 

[Bruce Berglund]

In bandy that is? Or did they switch to the game with the puck for two matches (as was not unusual in Europe back then)?

Well, that's trick – figuring out what game they were playing. The term "hockey" was used throughout Europe to describe what the English called "bandy." These games in Berlin were called "Eishockey," but they were likely playing with a ball on a big sheet of ice.

 

[Theokritos]

Well, that's trick – figuring out what game they were playing. The term "hockey" was used throughout Europe to describe what the English called "bandy." These games in Berlin were called "Eishockey," but they were likely playing with a ball on a big sheet of ice.

That's what I would have guessed.

When I was speaking of the strong fundamentals the Russian had due to their bandy background, I was primarily thinking of 1920s/1930s Soviet bandy, which was already a professional sport (not on paper though). But of course you're entirely right: even if we go back to the Imperial time, we can already observe a relatively high level in Russia, although organized sport was not quite a mass phenomenon yet. In St. Petersburg, you had that Skating Club ("Society of Skating Lovers") and in Moscow you had teams like the "Moscow River Yacht Club" and the "Sokolniki Club of Sports Lover". As aristocractic and bourgeois as one can imagine.

But then, I wonder whether the Berlin clubs the Russians faced in Germany in 1907 were actually any different than that in their background.

 

[Bruce Berglund]

What makes you think that the case against the players wasn't fabricated? . . . I think it's important to recognize that the content of official state documents regarding this case was made up the members of the State security (StB.. but maybe it was a different abbreviation and name in 1950..). Players were tortured during interrogations. I think one player basically lost hearing during this.. State security agents just wrote whatever they were ordered to write from the authorities above.

When I started reading through the interrogation records, I looked for indications that the testimony was given under threat of torture or that the players' statements were scripted by the StB. The transcripts are dozens of pages long and very detailed. There are specific details and side tangents in the statements, showing that the players themselves gave the information. These aren't documents that the police created and then tortured the players into signing.

You are correct about the American plot to create an exile team in December 1948, and the vote held by Prague LTC players to remain in Czechoslovakia. The idea resurfaced in 1949, and it was posed by an American officer named William Bowe, who worked at the embassy. He was in regular contact with Modrý, who put the American in contact with his teammates.

While the players decided not to defect at the Spengler Cup, by the following summer and autumn they were becoming more disgruntled. The government had pledged to give them cars if they won the world championship. After they won the title in Sweden, the government reneged on that promise.

Modrý didn't retire. He quit – in anger. He had asked Kopecký's permission to play pro hockey in North America. Modrý made the case that it would be good PR for the Czechoslovak government to allow him to play in North America, and he would learn about new engineering practices there. Kopecký said yes, and then reneged after the national team won the world championship. Modrý bristled under the growing restrictions from the government. He quit the team and planned to emigrate. His interrogation transcripts were long, and he unloaded his anger on the police.

The interesting thing that comes out of the transcripts is how the players still thought they were living in a free society. The reality of Communist rule that later generations of Czechs and Slovaks would know – that the StB was all-powerful and had informers everywhere – was not yet the case in 1949-50. When they had conversations with an American officer, they didn't see it as potentially treasonous.

You're correct that there is no evidence that the Soviets pushed for the hockey team's arrest. As for Zábrodský, there is a lot of back and forth among Czechs as to whether the captain was the informant. In his memoir, Zábrodský said, "Why would I inform on my own teammates? I needed them." But in their interrogations, each player said that Zábrodský thought he was the team and they couldn't stand him for that.

 

[Bruce Berglund]

That's what I would have guessed.

When I was speaking of the strong fundamentals the Russian had due to their bandy background, I was primarily thinking of 1920s/1930s Soviet bandy, which was already a professional sport (not on paper though). But of course you're entirely right: even if we go back to the Imperial time, we can already observe a relatively high level in Russia, although organized sport was not quite a mass phenomenon yet. In St. Petersburg, you had that Skating Club ("Society of Skating Lovers") and in Moscow you had teams like the "Moscow River Yacht Club" and the "Sokolniki Club of Sports Lover". As aristocractic and bourgeois as one can imagine.

But then, I wonder whether the Berlin clubs the Russians faced in Germany in 1907 were actually any different than that in their background.

Yes, the German teams would have likewise represented clubs of bourgeois gentlemen.

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

...The first evidence I found of the Russians beating up on more experienced hockey players came in 1907. The St. Petersburg Skating Club traveled to Berlin to play against two local clubs. The Russians won by a combined score of 36-0.

The first time the Russians beat a foreign hockey (bandy) team was in 1901, when they won two games against Vyborg (Viipuri in Finnish), then part of The Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1903 they won against the German team Uhlenhorster HC.
By 1906 St. Petersburg had a four team league and the sport was really popular in the city.

We have to remember that the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family were great admirers of the sport, playing it themselves. A long tradition in the family, having been played already by his grandfather Alexander II in the 1850s.

In bandy that is? Or did they switch to the game with the puck for two matches (as was not unusual in Europe back then)?

Without going into too many details. Yes, it was bandy. The games were well-documented. Looking at the photos in my file, it was regular bandy that was played. St. Petersburg had one of the best bandy clubs in Europe at the time.
The German club Leipzig had the best, largely thanks to the Schomburgk brothers, the two best pre WW I bandy players in Europe.

St. Petersburg lost 8-13 to Leipzig in their first game (all Leipzig goals scored by the Schomburgk bros). The countries used different rules at the time. The Russians wanted to play with eleven players, the Germans with nine.
In the end they agreed to play with eight players aside, using a Russian ball and a Russian referee.

Against Berliner FC Preussen, St. Petersburg won 20-0 and used nine players (three forwards, three midfielders, two defensemen and a goalie). Playing time was 2x40 min. In the second Berlin game, St. Petersburg won 13-0 against Berliner Hockey Club, the playing time was 2x30 min.

Sadly enough, many of the early St. Petersburg players were killed during the Russian revolution.
Sorry for going slightly off-topic, but politics is actually weaved into it.

 

[DN28]

When I started reading through the interrogation records, I looked for indications that the testimony was given under threat of torture or that the players' statements were scripted by the StB. The transcripts are dozens of pages long and very detailed. There are specific details and side tangents in the statements, showing that the players themselves gave the information. These aren't documents that the police created and then tortured the players into signing.

So you are able to decipher from the documents of StB or OBZ which statements were honestly said by the players and which statements were enforced?

Even if your answer is yes, you realize that players were significantly deprived of sleep, hungry and dehydrated? It's not difficult to imagine that in such poor conditions some players would tell interrogators what they had thought would have been a "proper" thing to say.

If I remember correctly, 6 players spent their interrogations in the notorious "Domeček" (= Little house) in Hradčany - pre-trial detention centre which belonged to Gestapo during the war. This building was later ran by František Pergl. Pergl was one of the most sadistic communist interrogators you could possibly find. In his time, Pergl "handled" many other political prisoners, not just our hockey players.

Would you agree that the testimonies of at least these 6 players held in "Domeček" and treated by Pergl are not trustworthy at all?

These aren't documents that the police created and then tortured the players into signing.

Well, that's how all of the political processes were conducted in the stalinist Czechoslovakia of the late 40s and 50s (to my knowledge..). Hence my doubts about validity of the interrogation records.

You are correct about the American plot to create an exile team in December 1948, and the vote held by Prague LTC players to remain in Czechoslovakia.

I haven't said that it was the American plot to create a team in exile in Dec. 1948. Actually, it had nothing to do with Americans - it was the initiative of Jaromír Citta, Josef Maleček and one or two other men, who ran the LTC Prague club back in the 1930s.

The idea resurfaced in 1949, and it was posed by an American officer named William Bowe, who worked at the embassy.

What evidence do you have that an American citizen named William Bowe, living and working in Prague during the cold war, would actually attempt to lure the entire team into some Western country and then to have them play... where and how? Swiss or British hockey federation were hardly to accept this new team of Czech emigrants who would have trash their domestic clubs.

He was in regular contact with Modrý, who put the American in contact with his teammates

According to whom? StB agents again?

If I remember correctly, it was either Vladimír Zábrodský or Blanka and Alena Modrá (Modrý's daughters) who said that Modrý did meet this American once or twice. A person who knew mr. Bowe more was Gustav Bubník. But I don't think even him was in "regular contact" with Bowe...

Modrý bristled under the growing restrictions from the government. He quit the team and planned to emigrate.

If Modrý really planned to emigrate, why would he then quit the National team and refuse to play in London in March 1950? Perhaps his last opportunity to escape..

Modrý was one of the players who voted against the proposal to stay in Switzerland in Dec. 1948. His reason to reject an emigration was his family he simply could not leave behind.

The interesting thing that comes out of the transcripts is how the players still thought they were living in a free society. The reality of Communist rule that later generations of Czechs and Slovaks would know – that the StB was all-powerful and had informers everywhere – was not yet the case in 1949-50. When they had conversations with an American officer, they didn't see it as potentially treasonous.

Absolutely. Most of the players were very young, just little over 20 and highly irresponsible when speaking about politics in public. Of course, Bohumil Modrý was different; very reserved, polite, noble man who stayed away from any political debate... didn't help him at all in the end..

You're correct that there is no evidence that the Soviets pushed for the hockey team's arrest. As for Zábrodský, there is a lot of back and forth among Czechs as to whether the captain was the informant.

In my opinion, there was no informant. StB obviously had various informants but StB didn't need them at the court hearing during the height of political violence of late 40s and 50s. Furthermore, those who "talked" the most during interrogations, those who "admitted" any wrongdoing, were the ones who always came with the harshest sentences... This is one more reason why I think accusations of Zábrodský being a "snitch" are just built on sand. If he was spying on his teammates, he'd be the one who mines uranium for 5 years.

In his memoir, Zábrodský said, "Why would I inform on my own teammates? I needed them." But in their interrogations, each player said that Zábrodský thought he was the team and they couldn't stand him for that.

Zábrodský was a strange man, more of a loner, not very social and at the same time very aware of his own status. Zábrodský was the best player, captain, playing coach, who also ran the whole organization with his father after circa 1947. A lot of responsibility laid upon him. He came off as arrogant to the teammates because he didn't go to grab a beer after a game but he instead would be dealing with financial issues of the club etc.

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

I found the following interview sent to me via e-mail in 2009.
It's a wall of text and very comprehensive.


Gustav Bubník
Interview with Mr. Augustin Bubník
Source: Political Prisoners Europe

"Jáchymov was the suffering of a nation that can never be forgotten."

First let me ask you about your childhood and place of birth.

I was born on 21st of November 1928 in Prague, so in the zodiac actually
I'm in the last week of Scorpio. Scorpios have always been proud fighters
and they were able to get together and do the best thing in every situation.
In 1928 when I was born, according to my mom and dad, there was terribly
frosty weather. Even while they were taking me to my baptism, they thought
we would freeze. So I was probably predetermined to frost and to ice hockey.
It proved true already during my childhood. My father was a butcher and he
worked in a slaughterhouse. My mom was a shop assistant at a butcher's.

They both came from Southern Bohemia to Prague and we all lived in Holešovice
in Prague 7. My mom was a big Sokol attendant[1], so she used to take my sister,
who was two years my junior, and I, to the Sokol training area at Libenský most.
There was a ice-rink created each winter. There we actually started to learn to
ice skate. Then I found out that there was ice near our household, at Štvanice
Island, where you could ice-skate and play ice hockey.

When did you start to play the major league hockey game?

After the war, the major leagues were the Olympic games in 1948, where we
pulled off an upset by tying Canada, with a score 0-0. For Canada it was a shock.
Up until that time they kept coming to Europe and beating Czechoslovakia. The
first match against Czechoslovakia in 1911 was 30-0 and then we were only losing
by 20 and later a 10 goal difference. Canada was coming to Europe for a World Cup
and it was a vacation for them, they were beating everyone around. It was a shock
for them when we ended up 0-0. After the end of the Olympic games there were
conflicts between the captain Vladimír Zábrodský and the head coach Matej Buckna.
Coach accused Zábrodský of establishing the wrong tactics - we should have played
offensively, not defensively. Buckna kept disputing that each of the players had
a big chance and opportunity to score a goal, and the Canadians as well. Thank
heavens we had a great goalkeeper, Mr. Modrý, and the match ended 0-0. We got an
invitation to Canada, to measure our strength against some Canadian teams at home.
At that time there were only 6 professional hockey teams playing in Canada.

What did your "seditious" activity consist of?

In that post-war time they were flaunting us as the most popular European hockey
team from LTC Prague[2]. Every New Year we played in Switzerland in a tournament
called the Spengler's Cup. Right after the Olympics in 1948, the whole team got
into a conflict with Czech immigrants from LTC Prague, those who were already
living in exile[3] in Switzerland. The people in exile asked Mr. Zábrodský, as
a speaker of the team, to organize our stay there. That would mean the whole
team would stay abroad, playing under the name of the Czechoslovakian national
team-in-exile. We would play in Europe, in England, and we would advertise the
image of this team.

At first, Mr. Zábrodský promised everything. Then they didn't
give him double the money as they had promised, for each player, and so he refused
the whole thing. There was even a vote, where 8 of the players were for returning
and 6 for staying. In that moment, in Switzerland brother Zábrodský and doctor
Fáma, who was a lawyer stayed. He was then 26 or maybe 28 years old, but knew well
he couldn't come back to the country. They were spokesmen for this organization
and that was why they knew there was no return for them. We went back and that
was the beginning of everything.

Did the repercussions start soon after returning to Prague?

Not yet, in 1949 we became world champions in Sweden. All of a sudden we beat
Canada 3-2! That was the first victory for Czechoslovakia against Canada. The
score was 3-2 if I remember well, Konopásek scored the first, I scored the second,
and the third was Rozinák, I think. All in all we won 3-2, which dethroned Canada.
When we came back, the government was welcoming us at the train station in Prague.
There was the Prime Minister Zápotocký, and other ministers. They greeted and
congratulated us in a private government saloon in the railway building. The
train station was full of people.

In 1950 they didn't let us go to the next world championship in Great Britain
though. They wanted us to proclaim that we would forego participation because
Czechoslovakian reporters didn't get visas to travel with the representation.
In the meantime, my sister who worked at one state office here in Prague, got
in touch with friends from the British information service and photocopied the
problematic visas. The visas were available, all the reporters had to do was
pick them up on Saturday, but they never came.

So we all got together immediately at "U Herclíku." That was a little pub by
the National Theater in Prague and the owner was a brother of a Sparta player,
Zdenek Ujcík. It was a pub where we, civilians and soldiers, were getting
together. We drank and ate well there. I remember, we dropped the things from
the airport at home and by 5 p.m. we started to get together. Inside there
were already some people, there was a bagpiper who also played the harmonica.
There we always sang, various songs about sport or about Prague. Memories, you
know. When merry-making was at its peak, when it was revealed why we didn't fly
to the championship, we all were pretty courageous. I can sincerely admit we
swore a lot, from time to time, we also ran out into the little square and yelled
out, "Death to communists!" and "We will not let you cut our wings, we will
reveal the truth!"

In that moment we heard from a radio how a reporter Edmund Koukal said, why
hockey players didn't leave for the championship. He said exactly what he was
told to say. Hockey players had foregone participation because the reporters
didn't get visas. So we called Mr. Laufer immediately, saying, "Come here,
we will tell you the truth." No, he didn't come. We called Koukal right after
the commentary to come to us and he answered, "Guys, I will not come." When
merry-making was at its peak and we were already very drunk, we started to
sing some songs on the ex-football player Vlasta Kopecký. It was a Slavia song.
Instead of Vlasta Kopecký we sang Venca (Czech name Václav) Kopecký, who was a
minister of schools and sports. When that hit its climax, I was walking by with
Rozinák and suddenly two men got up from one of the tables and caught us. They
told us we would go with them.

What are your memories and what comes to mind when I mention "domecek"[4]
at Hradcany?

The time I lived there was from April 15th to the beginning of May. When they
finished the investigation and I was transported to holding at Pankrác, that was
the worst time in my life. I was a young kid, having fun with all those things,
thinking nothing bad could have happened to me. Maybe we would get a punishment
for the disturbance we caused in the pub, but everything that happened then,
all that investigating of the whole case, and everything that was rolled onto us,
was really cruel.

The worst times were of course those, when we were in the hands
of Pergl[5], the boss of the "domecek." The most terrible thing was when they took
us to the general staff at Dejvice. Whether it was in the morning, noon, evening
or at night, everything depended on how much the investigators were in a mood to
talk to us. The worst was his abuse and treatment in the "domecek." The cruelest
was a dungeon cell under the staircase where, once he got the command, put me and
the other boys (though I spent the most time there). It was dark and there was no
daylight, no bulb. It was a hard-packed cell, wet and closed. There a man was like
a mouse in a hole adrift until they brought coffee or a piece of bread, if they
gave us something.

Those were horrible things. From the moment we went into the "domecek" he used
violence, a truncheon, and he had cat o'nine tails with little bullets. He was
hitting a person with that from the front, from the back, many times I fell down
and he behaved like a beast that was being satisfied with that cruelty on us. Of
course, his expressions and everything made you worried about your own life. Many
times he led me to the inquisition pointing a gun at me. I didn't know whether
it was full and whether it was on safety, but he said, "Make another step and I
will shoot you like a dog, you seditious bastard" or "Will you speak or not?"

The worst was when the investigators didn't get out of me what they wanted.
When I couldn't confess what they were suspecting of me, then the nights and
days were bad. The truth is that they had to give us some laxative in the coffee,
because we were starving. I remember Tonda Španinger saying once, "If I could
catch a bird sitting on the ledge, I would eat it." It was that brutal over there.

So in that "domecek" there were six of us, six soldiers. The guards weren't men,
they were beasts, who were our age, maybe a little older. They kept walking in
corridors, kicking the doors and we had to either do push-ups or knee-bends or
run away... briefly, they always wanted to crush us so the investigators would
get us in such a state, to be able to do anything with us. I remember getting
to Pergl's office and I saw various instruments hanging on the walls... Once
they gave me a metal belt around my head and kept pulling it tighter and tighter,
so I thought it would squash my head. They tied your arms together so you couldn't
defend or fight back and they did what ever they needed. I really lost thirty kilos
(66 pounds) while I was there. I came in with a weight of eighty kilograms (176
pounds) and when I was left I was nearly fifty kilos (110 pounds)... they still
wanted to prove me guilty, that I was the head initiator and traitor, and that
it was me who persuaded others to stay in abroad.

I always wanted a confrontation. When the investigator declared that Josef
Jirka said this and that, showing me his papers, I said, "No, I want you to put us
face to face." Even once when we were going by a car with Jirka together to
investigation process I said to him, "What the hell were you saying in there, it
isn't the truth at all." He was absolutely down in a low psychotic state, they
could and did anything they wanted. We would have signed anything.

So they took us to the office to be confronted. When I said I didn't tell him
anything in the car, he started crying and totally broke down. I knew it and I
believe and not only us, but also big soldiers of the foreign army and generals,
Pergl really scourged us. He wasn't a human being, he was a hyena, reigning there,
and he did exactly what they wanted him to do. He was getting people ready for the
investigation process. When all that was over, I was really happy I got to Pankrác
and I was waiting to go through the investigation there.

How long did the "domecek" situation last?

It was from March 15th. They took me into custody on the 13th then they took me
to the fifth department by the Saint Nicholas church two days later, the one at
Malá strana. Then Lietenant Hulka came to pick me up, he was in the army gym club
in Chuchle, he was also a member of OBZ[6]. Also this, "Dry Linden," Pergl was
there. From Saint Nicholas they took me to the "domecek." So I was there from
March 15th. When I was traveling back then, a flower called golden rain was in
bloom. I remember it was May Day, because I heard the big celebrations on the
Ring Square. I was there until the beginning of May, when they took me over.
So it lasted seven, maybe eight weeks.

The six friends, can you name them?

Who was at that "domecek"? Of course I can, it was me, Kobranov, Štock, Hainy,
Španninger and Jirka, all six of us who were on the national team and who was
nominated for the world championships in London. In fact, we all were soldiers.
Some in the basic service, some who for two years had already played hockey for
the army sport club. We represented the army and we had the basement in Chuchle
Station. We lived in a villa and commuted to the stadium at Stvanice to train
and play. So there was these six soldiers, but some of us left at different
time from there. Not all went as late as I did. I think that I was one of the
last ones who was moved to Pankrác[7].

Nevertheless you were one of the youngest ones.

Unfortunately and of course I was really a naive young boy. I can see today.
I didn't have a clue what was spreading around and what Communism was.

How old were you at that time?

In March of 1950 I was twenty-one and a half. I wasn't even supposed to
start my military service yet. I went as a basic soldier because my best
friend Vofka Kobranov went as well and we played two years before that on
the national team. So he talked me into it. I went into the military service
a year earlier than I had to. I wanted to be in the military service so that
we both could play for the army sport club.

Out of six, was there any who didn't confess?

For sure Jirka confessed everything that they knew on him. For sure Hajný
confessed, he even got only one year of punishment because he confessed that
he had plans to stay abroad. He was a really smart and intelligent kid. He was
also doing track and field events and he was connected with Václav Mudra.
Mudra became the biggest chief of OBZ after 1948 because he was an athlete and
they were doing athletics together in Slavia. So it was possible that Mudra
helped him out a little bit out of the case or out of the whole thing. So for
sure Jirka confessed everything he was doing, what he smuggled, and everything
else. Španinger didn't have to confess about anything because he was in the
whole case by chance. He wasn't even in Switzerland with us where we voted
whether to stay there or not. Štock was also supposed to go or fly for the
first time in his life for the national team and according to the paper I
later found out, that Štock said even those things that he didn't have to
talk about. So they got him on everything that they wanted. For sure Vofka
Kobranov didn't confess and neither did I.

Just for interest, how did you vote in Switzerland?

In Switzerland the whole thing finally collapsed when the immigration group
didn't convince the whole team to stay and play as the Czechoslovakian team-
in-exile. The main initiator and speaker was the captain of the team Vladimír
Zábrodský who put the whole thing together. The other day in the morning he
said the team voted eight players for returning and six were for immigration.
So the decision was resting on him, how he would decide. If he would decide
to stay I am sure the other eight players would have stayed as well. Maybe
some of them would have returned, because at that time it was really hard.
For a person who wasn't even twenty-one years old yet, parents had to give
security. That meant if we stayed abroad our parents would be arrested and
the whole family would be liquidated. The other ones who were older, like
Konopásek, Rozinák, Trousílek and the others, lived either alone and they
had families and they were just older then us twenty year old kids.

Were you for returning or for exile?

I was for returning because I didn't want to get my parents into such
trouble.

When you moved from „domecek" to Pankrác, what did they sentence you for?

When we got to Pankrác I was in a cell with two other prisoners who were also
waiting for their hearing. That wasn't a solitary cell. There was no more
beatings, no more fear that they would come up with something. The worse for
me was the investigation when they wanted to beat out a confession that I was
giving messages to a Mr. Bowe. He was the boss of the American Embassy here
in Prague who was giving out the entrance visas to Germany to all four zones
whether it was the American, British, French, or Russian zone. That was the
man Mr. Modrý introduced me to. He was coming to hockey games and he played
golf, his wife played golf, and I really started a friendship with them. They
used this as a pretense that this Mr. Bowe was to inform me and I was giving
him other messages or info as to what was happening in the army. Yet, in my
army nothing was happening. We played hockey. When I was telling them this,
they didn't want to believe it and they still insisted on a confession about
what messages I was giving him. He was supposed to be the main initiator, a
person who was persuading me, to persuade the whole team to immigrate, which
wasn't true at all. I later found out that in twenty-four hours he was
deported out of the country because he was accused of espionage.

So when we came to Pankrác it was already a little different there. For me
it was terrible what I was learning there. Other prisoners were giving me
advice on how things go there, when breakfast and lunch are brought. We went
out for a walk once a day for a half hour out on the square between the blocks
of Pankrác prison. A man learned something there and was given other advice
from other prisoners. The worst was when they were telling me once that early
in the morning there was some murmer they could hear. I actually came right
before the execution of Milada Horáková[8]. Of course the other prisoners knew
those who were there for a couple weeks or months on how it goes. The breakfast
was longer and we were watching out the windows onto the square whether something
was happening, but Horáková was executed off out on a corner. It was terrible
for me when I saw that. We were also watching out through a little half window
that we tilted down. Though we were not allowed to do that, but a man could look
into the reflection and see that square. The awful part was the view of people
called "retezári" ("chainers"). Retezári were the people who had tried to escape.

There were also people called "provazári" ("ropers"). "Provazári" were people
on death row. The other prisoners, I don't remember their names, were counting
them. They knew how many were there. When one was missing all of a sudden they
were saying, "Oh well, so another one was taken away, hung up, or sentenced."
These "provazári" were pronouncedly down in the cellars, in dungeons where
they were waiting for executions. "Retezári" were people who had escaped from
labor camp and they really had leg-irons and from those they were chained to
the wall. That really existed. In that cell the prisoner couldn't move, he was
just sitting on a little chair and couldn't do anything else. When he needed
to defecate, there was a little bucket to be used. When they were walking on
their walk, they had to hold their chains behind them because the leg-irons
had protrusions, so they had to walk with their legs wide apart, otherwise
they would trip and fall. I can tell you that was a terrible sight, for me,
a twenty-year old kid, to see that something like that existed.

What happened after that?

That's how I lived through that time until I had a hearing at court in September.
Before that they were calling us, they were coming to us, and they were calling
us until we got two lawyers who were representing us. Rozinák and I had a man
named Lindner who was a really tough lawyer. When he read everything, all the
papers, he said, "They can't sentence you for anything. You can just get
something for the disturbance in the pub. Maybe you will get a year or two.
They will sentence you and put you into a military prison. Yet, other paragraphs
that are here like spying, high treason, disrupting the socialist state they can
not prove because there is no proof and it's all just fiction."

Finally there was a hearing. The first day we all thought that through all the
contacts with our families and through our lawyers, that our wife and kids would
be in that big hall. We were having court in that huge hall as Horáková did and
all these cases. We thought that we would see our relatives somewhere, but when
they were dragging us through the corridors no one was there. We came to the
reception hall and there was also no one waiting. The first one to be called in
was Mr. Modrý who was testifying for almost half a day. In the afternoon it was me.
I was the next. Our court was for two days actually. We were really surprised that
the court wasn't a civil court.

There were twelve of us, six civilians and six soldiers. We learned from the
papers that they didn't have a civilian court, but we had a military court.
They also called the process to be top secret so people who had nothing to do
with that case could not be present in that hall. Whether it was associate lawyers
or the master of the court, we saw just one person that I remember really well.
It was the communist editor, Václav Švadlena who was writing for newspaper
"Rudé právo"[9]. He was the only one who had free access to this whole process.

What was your perception of the whole court process?

We thought it would be easy and we would be acquitted of those charges. When we
saw that the head judge started dealing with our charges we still thought we
would get some leniency. The second day Bóža Modrý and I were sitting there the
whole day and the others were testifying, Rozinák, Konopásek, Macelis, Jirka,
Štock, Španninger and the pub owner Ujcík, who got three years for not stopping
us from the disturbance. When we were waiting for the final sentence, we were
all standing.

What were the final verdicts?

We heard the speech of the judge as we were all acquitted from the death penalty,
but we were each given sentences:
Modrý 15 years, I 14 years, Konopásek 12 years, Rozinák and Kobranov both 10 years,
then it was 6 years for Jirka I think, 3 years for Cervený, 2 for Macelis, Hajný
got a year and Španinger got 9 months. The pub owner Ujcík got three years. All of
a sudden we were standing there completely depressed because we were standing up
against something that couldn't be recalled. Of course after we consulted with our
lawyers the five of us who were given the harshest sentences for high treason and
spying immediately appealed to the highest court. The five of us who had 15, 14,
12, and 10 years appealed to the highest court[10]. We were put back into our cells
and I remember such a funny story. When I came back to the cell, two of my cellmates
were already both sentenced. One of them had twenty years and the other had maybe
eighteen years, so we came and they said, "So how much did you get?" and I said,
"fourteen." "Man that's nothing, you'll sit that on a razor blade," they said.

I answered, "What? On a razor blade? Fourteen years on a razor blade, that's not
possible." They said, "that's how it's said here, when a person isn't hung-up, and
he can walk away from the sentence and go on living."

What happened next after the court verdict?

We were waiting for a long time in the court department and sometime in October or
November they chased us out and loaded us on a bus. The whole escort was maybe
around thirty people. We were together and I remember I was tied up to the arm of
big Cervený, our goalie. They put us on the bus. The bus was surrounded by police
cars. We were leaving and we didn't know where we were going whether it was a
prison or a camp. From our cellmates we were informed that you can either go to
another prison or a camp. All of a sudden we appeared at the prison Bory[11].

When we came there it was just terrible. The welcome process when we were walking
in the corridors to the main square ... I think it was B corridor ... a big circus
started. There was a guard who started yelling at us and calling us names. Some
prisoners were even making fun of it and also Cervený was making fun of it, he was
quite a joker. There they hit us with nightsticks and we had to line up. Whether
it was Trepka[12] or Brabec[13] and the other guards. During that terrible process
we had to take our clothes off and we got a sack in which we found prison clothes
and other things. The fun was, for example, I had pants up to my neck and then
they took it away from me and switched it with someone else. They put us in those
stripes and in a little while someone else took us away. By the way, right after
we came there, they took us upstairs into a room and took a picture of us. First
they took our pictures in civilian clothes and there I got my prison number.

After that they took us downstairs and barbers came and shaved us bald. During
everything very funny stories were made up. I remember that when they were giving
us the stripes Cervený, who was a big joker, was asking, "Who sewed your clothes,
such a suit, they don't even sell at Bárta's shop." That was the most popular
tailor on Na Príkope street where the rich people had their clothes made. Of
course he was hit in a second and punished. Another funny thing was when they
shaved our head. On my head I had a big laceration and you could see a scar.

So Zlatka didn't forget to make another joke, "Well your head is sewed up together
nicely, everyone will like you," and he was smacked. The guards were smacking us
here and there. So they took our pictures in civilian clothes, dressed us up, and
took our pictures in stripes. I have all these pictures and when I look at them I
must laugh. Then they put us into the dungeons where we were either in solitary
cells or in pairs. There real prison life started and we had to conform to
everything. When a guard kicked your door and he was demanding something, one had
to do it.

What was your first experience with forced labor like?

Always every morning they threw a bag of dirty goose feathers into our cell.
After that another bag, we were in pairs. We had to strip the feathers, we had
to learn to tear off the quill from the little feather and put this into a
special bag. The rate of output was very high and so was the bad smell from
the feathers they brought. We had to strip all the stuff they brought.
I don´t remember exactly, but at one time it was about 33 dkg (7.3 pounds)
and then they increased it on 60 dkg (13.2 pounds). A man from Bory described
that in a book of memoirs.

If one didn´t do it, they didn´t get food. Work over there was really hard
for people who had never done it in their lives before, or whose fingers were
numb and couldn´t. Some of us were working and got so good at it that we were
able to help a cellmate. When I saw I had about 60 dkg done and they didn´t
come to get it, although it was after supper and we had a whole day for it,
I quickly gave help to my cellmate. They always took it away and never weighed
it in front of you. So you didn´t really know whether you met the quota or not.
You didn´t have a clue whether you would get a quarter of bread or soup or
just some peas and barley or something that they served. One simply didn´t know
and depended on the mercy or disfavour of the guards, whether they admit it or
not and whether they feed you or not. Although it was a cruel time over there
and we lived through hard days and months, there came a day when they took us
out of the dungeons and moved us from B block to another department, I think
it was D.

How did it look like over there?

There were bigger cells, five of them, with ten pallets, that were called beds.
As we found out later, this department was called "Kremlin"[14] and there were
about fifty prisoners, or ten people in each cell. There were a couple of
"katers", that means a couple of iron bars. From each of these bars, a different
guard had a key. So one guard couldn't get through it alone, there always had to
be two or three of them.

In that unit there were people who we could call "the best of the Czech nation,"
not only generals, but also politicians, priests, and officers of the Eastern
and Western armies, the pilots who made up a British squadron, the majors of
Brno, Lenora[15] and other towns, where they were taking people across the
border. Among these ten people, life was different and again specific in
certain ways. Before that you were just with one person and didn't get to see
the others unless it was during the compulsory walks. We went to walk between
the houses because the prison in Bory was built in a shape of a star. So I could
see there were others walking there too, possibly a friend or just a familiar
face. We also went to have a shower once a week and that was it. When we got to
the new department, to the "Kremlin" it had changed, there was a different way
of living. We were getting food, there was a corridor of servicemen who were
bringing us food. Breakfast in the morning, a quarter of bread and coffee, then
lunch into a tin cup.

Do you have any positive memories from this time?

At "Kremlin" I later recognized that I was in a completely different prison
system. As a young boy who didn't have a clue what was happening in the world
around, I learned a lot there. It was my first university. The people opened my
eyes. The head of general staff was telling us about a front on the West.

Pravomil Reichel who was my cellmate and who was something like my mentor, kept
telling me about Russia. How he escaped from a gulag[16], where there was such
hunger that when someone died, others ate his body...my eyes were popping out
of my head when hearing this. Priests talked about what was done to them before
the court. I was there together with one general Palecek, the head of paratroopers
on the western front, who was sentenced for life imprisonment. There was a lot of
generals and also Mr. Podsedník, a major of Brno, who was sentenced because he
was a national socialist. Next there was Cervenka, a major of Lenora at Šumava,
who had stories about helping and leading people and other big shots over the
borders to Germany. There was also a member of the party Lidová Strana, Mr. Herold,
who told us what was happening after 1945 in Parliament. How they had arguments
and then went to drink together, whatever party they were from. I was gaining
knowledge there and they taught me everything - in these cells we worked too.

We couldn't go out to work, although those who had lower sentences could leave the
prison and go to workshops. We were not allowed to go out, but they brought us
various things to work on. Whether it was flags we had to glue on wooden sticks
or making snap fasteners which were brought from Koh-i-Noor[17].

On everything there was a quota. We were also cleaning silverware, which they
stole from different chateaus and castles and brought it to us in a decrepit state.
We had to clean it with ammonia and a white chalk until it was nice and shiny.
They even gave us sewing machines and we had to learn how to sew cables from cloth
or leather. We worked there with leather a lot. We were making straps, making parts
for textile machines, working with hemp, and we had to bead rolls. Everything was
under quota and everyone had to fulfill the quota as the food was depending on that.

So it was ten people that were already a group who were quickly working as a team.
The most beautiful thing was on Saturday afternoon, I don't know anymore if it was
at three or five o'clock, but they locked down all the bars and we knew that until
Monday morning there would be nothing happening and no one would be dragged through
an inspection. Always on Saturday or Sunday afternoon one person from each cell had
homework to prepare a story he wanted to talk about. It was a little university
there, but big training for a man. We were still waiting for the final word from
the highest court. We were still living with high hopes that the punishment would
be reduced and instead of fourteen years we might get only a year or two. So there
was hope living in each of us that we would be released from prison.

When did it come, the result from the highest court?

It was terrible that it was autumn and we were still in these dungeons, five of us
who appealed were still sitting in the "Kremlin". In each dungeon there was one of
us, Bóža Modrý, Kobranov, Rozinák, Konopásek, and I. We all went through that.
It was close to the ice rink in Plzen so we heard each goal. They were playing
hockey there and we were in the "Kremlin", sentenced to so many years. From that
point of view it was horrible, to find out that it's the end of your sports life.
I was just twenty and when I thought I would have to spend fourteen years there I
would come out at age thirty-four and I could just go and dig potatoes and not
play hockey.

When did the statement finally arrive?

That hope was still living in us when all of a sudden they announced that the
appellate court will be on the 22nd of December, 1950. So we were waiting to see
what would happen. They came for us and dressed in prison clothes they put us in
an "anton."[18] In front of us and behind us there were cars with machine guns
and we were still hoping at least at this court we would see our parents and our
children.

You hadn't seen them until that time?

We hadn't seen anyone at all, absolutely not. They took us again to that court
and I remember as though it happened earlier today. The chairman of the court
was Mr. Kruk. Then they called us in. All five of us were standing there. First,
a plaintiff spoke then our lawyers were speaking and pointing out the facts that
nothing had been proven. They were insisting that there was reasonable suspicion,
but they had no proof and therefore there was nothing they could sentence us for.
Our lawyers were telling us that and we still believed it. Yet, the procurator
was a real bastard. He kept reading various protocols, even a statement of a
woman who was a caretaker of a house we were living in where my father had a shop,
a butcher shop in Podbaba[19].

This caretaker was taken care of by my father during the whole war and he gave
her things to help her out. This lady wrote about me because she was a secret
communist confidante that I was the last root of a Golden Prague Youth that must
be cut off. I was rolling my eyes when I heard what people from my building wrote
about me. What people who knew me and knew I was a famous person wrote about me.
So the plaintiff put the worst on us again regardless of proof or confirmation
from the court that it's standing on our high sentences, but we were still hoping.

I remember Dr. Kruk as though it was today, how his hands were shaking, sweat
was running down, and he was completely flabbergasted. This guy was certainly
doing something that was against his will, his voice was shaking when he
confirmed that all the sentences are confirmed by the highest court.

What ran through your head at that moment?

I remember that even at that moment, even Modrý, who still continued to play
the hero, said, "Well guys the cage door just closed and we're inside. No one
will help us now." The highest court confirmed the sentences of the state court
and we knew that we couldn't do anything, just live through that time or wait for
a Presidential pardon or being released on a two-thirds or one-half punishment
for good behavior and satisfactory work. All prisoners were fooling themselves
that they wouldn't be there for their whole sentence and that they would get out
earlier. That was happening later too when I got into camps in the Jáchymov area
or the Príbram area.

In every prisoner there was a little light of hope that
their day of freedom would pop out. There would have to be a rebellion or a war
and then we all would be released or that we would be released on a condition
reversed by the court or something similar to that. When we were getting back
from the highest court on the 22nd of December, just two days before Christmas
Day, I remember in front of Pankrác Hall there were our parents, sisters, boys'
children and none of them were let into the process.

Did you have a chance to see any of your relatives during this time before the
final court decision?

No, but I have a little memory in my head when we were coming to Prague. They
took us in an "anton" all tied up together to the rail station in Plzen. There
we had a wagon with a coup reserved and surrounded by police so no one could
enter. We went this way to Prague and when we got to the main Prague train
station, the train stopped on the first platform. They took us out from the
wagon to a special government room, which still exists there and from there
we were waiting for another "anton" to take us to Pankrác. This car backed up
right to the entrance and we went from the room, to the car, and straight to
Pankrác. Of course we went straight in so that no one could see us. While we
were sitting in the government salon, we were allowed to speak although
there were secret police around. We looked at each other and said, "So guys,
can you see this? One year ago, another train took us to the first platform.
Here the government welcomed us, Zápotocký[20], all the ministers, and all of
Prague were at our feet and today they took us to the same salon." I remember
that so well, but I can't remember who said it.

So we thought that not even a year later, we were something completely
different for the nation. We returned the same way, to the salon, from the
salon, to the train, by train back to Plzen, then into the same "anton" and
back to Bory. We got back to the dungeons and continued to work as I've
already described.

How did the daily routine of a political prisoner look like in a stone prison?

I was lucky, out of the fifty people who were transported there, I was the
youngest one. Right at the time, one of the prisoners, who was on hall duty
left and a commander Trepka had me do it in his place. I didn't know what it
was, but they took me out and I found out that my boss was General Palecek,
one of the biggest war heroes. He was a really good man who taught me all the
duties of prison. All of a sudden I was serving food, pouring soup, and together
we were putting food onto tin plates and putting them into the little windows
where the prisoners were taking them from us. This way I knew about everything
that was happening there. Palecek taught me various tricks, for example how to
take "moták"[21] from one dungeon to another.

When we were pouring out the piss
and shit, disinfecting the bucket and putting it back into the cell, guards
were usually away and we could put a piece of paper which had a message. When
soup was poured in, and if I was holding a "moták," I blinked my eye and I
dropped it in for the one I was giving it to. Then he knew he had a message.
That was something amazing for me. I was also going to pick food from the
central, so I saw the daily life in prison. That was nice and I can tell you
at that time I cheered up a little, even though I had fourteen years with not
knowing how it will go on.

How did you get to Jáchymov[22]?

I can't tell you exactly when it was, but it happened within a year,
sometime in 1951. Suddenly they started transporting us, probably canceling
"Kremlin", because some prisoners were taken to Leopoldov. Others somewhere
else, and some of us were taken to Jáchymov. We came to Vykmanov by Ostrov
upon Ohre, where there was the main gathering camp and from that one they
divided us into different camps. In a short amount of time I was right next
to this camp. This camp was called "L" and also a camp of death.

Here the uranium ore was broken, split up, put into barrels, and sent to
Russia. That was really a death camp. Whoever was there for a long time had
really bad health problems from the dust and radiation. Some people didn't
even stay there for a month and some people stayed two or three months,
some a half year, and some had health problems for the rest of their lives,
because of blood decay, muscle decay, muscle or bone decay and so on. That
was the worst camp. I was there for a short time, maybe a week or two weeks
and I didn't get to the crushing department. I was doing just some helping
work, around. Then another transport came and they took me up to Jáchymov
and there I went through many different camps.

One of the worst one was called Nikolaj, up above Jáchymov. There were
German "vindicative" prisoners[23] who were sentenced in 1945. There was
always a commander and a main camp guard. Together they organized something
like a little trip either at night or during the day. They went into the
blocks. They chased everyone out where people had to stand sometimes in the
frost and in their cells they made a huge mess. If we had food in the lockers,
they stepped on it and threw it out. That was just a nightmare.

Which camps were you kept at?

If I remember well, the first camp was Nikolaj, then I went to Twelve,
from there to Prokop, from there to Ležnice, from Ležnice back to Ten and
then back to Twelve. I returned there because they thought I might be a
candidate to run away. Once I worked with a group that later tried to escape.
I was even considered a "runaway" for a short time, because at one point I
was transporting stone on small wagons from mining holes to the lift that
took the stone up. One Sunday this group didn't take me on the shift and
during the evening they tried to escape. I can tell that this was my holy
luck or maybe my bad luck that I couldn't participate in this. For a long
time they had agreed that they would try to escape and one guard even
helped them. The worst was that they caught them and shot them. When they
brought them back to camp they just threw them on the camp like they were
nothing and everyone had to walk around them. Beware to anyone who had their
head down or made a cross. If you did, you were hit right away and almost
knocked out. It was something horrible to see shot dead friends.

It was almost the whole of Kukal's group that tried to escape. I worked with them
a couple of shifts and from this base they took me to Ruzyne[24].
I can tell you at Ruzyne I went through something similar to the "domecek."
They wanted to shake out or beat out from me that I knew about the escape
and that I didn't want to tell the secret police. I knew a little bit, but
I didn't have a clue that the group had agreed for a long time. Kukal wrote
a book[25] then about the escape. When I met him, he signed the book and
wrote me a message in it, "We escaped you, thank God!" They actually
escaped away from me and saved my life this way, because if I had gone
with them they probably would have shot me like the others. So then I was
at Ruzyne in Prague.

What memories do you have of the prison in Ruzyne?

I was in Ruzyne for about a half year and they still tried to get out of me
what I knew about the escape. Again, they tried to trap me. It was at my
lowest point and I didn't think I was going to get out from the bottom.
Once I even heard down in the dungeon an International song[26] being sung.
There were people yelling and singing of the International song and the
guards were beating them. I heard them weeping ... and it was Slánský and Co.
[27] Down there in the dungeons was all of Slánský's group who were finally
sentenced to death.

They assigned a priest to me and I didn't know whether it was a real priest,
but he continued to insist he was. They knew psychologically I was doing
really bad. The priest wanted me to write a "moták" to my parents so that
they would have news of me. There were a couple of months where no one knew
anything about me, where I was, if I was living, or if they already shot me.
The priest made me write a "moták," especially to my sister who still worked
in the office of Martin Bowe. Again they wanted to prove that I was connected
to this office even though Mr. Bowe wasn't there and someone else had already
taken over. The priest kept saying that he has good connections through one
of the guards and that they would give it to my sister. So I wrote a little
message on a piece of paper that he gave me, but I did it very carefully.

I told them to say hello to uncle this and that although the uncle had been
dead for a while. I believed she would understand that the letter wasn't a
true one. Later I found out that this priest was for sure an imposter and a
confidante of the state and was assigned to me to trap me. When he gave the
message to my sister out in the street, they arrested her and wanted to make
her work for the state secret police. Anyway, she didn't really have time to
read what was on the "moták" and they released her after about three days.

She continued to work at the office for some time. So they were trying to
pull such tricks on me because they were trying to get me in trouble and get
me extra years in prison. When they caught someone during an attempted escape
or being connected with civilians, they held a new court hearing and they gave
you five more years. So I kind of saved myself this way, because it was
revealed that everything that I wrote on the "moták" was false.

From Ruzyne you returned to Jáchymov?

Of course, they took me back to pit number twelve, but only for a short time.
I was unlucky that I was marked on my clothes. We had pants and on those were
white stripes. Whoever had one stripe had it all right. Whoever had two, that
was already a dangerous person of whom they kept a special eye on. I had an
extra circle on my back as a mark that indicated I was not allowed to stop.

That also meant that I was the most dangerous person for gathering people and
organizing them in a group. So for the whole time I was working in the Jáchymov
camps, when ever there was Christmas, May Day celebrations, or what ever
different holidays, they put me in correction as soon as I got out from the
pit wet and dirty. "Correction" was separate housing that was a part of the
camp, a dungeon and that was where I would spend my holidays. I couldn't move
around the camp because in a moment my friends came up to me and quickly we
were two or three and a siren started to wail and they were indicating we were
not allowed to get together. They still expected that we were getting ready to
escape. I was labeled like this until the end of my stay in the working camps.

Do you remember the prison number you had in Jáchymov?

I even have them written down. My first number was 1257, but then for others
I would have to look into the letters my parents were writing to me. They
always had to write my prison number and "Bory" or "Karlovy Vary." So I had
about three or four different numbers, but my first number was 1257.

Did you ever come across homosexuality in the camps?

No, never. Although at these camps there was something different. There were
groups of people who were interested in culture, theater, and who learned
language. We mainly propagated sports. We got together with friends from Brno,
Ostrava, and Slovakia. Volleyball was played there, of course when the work was
at full stretch and the staff of the camp let us. We also played football, a
match of Bohemia versus Moravia and that was always a big event because many
people came to watch. Even right before I was released they let us at camp
Bytíz build a small ice rink where we could play hockey. Bytíz was my best
camp where I spent almost two years. I even remember finding a letter where
I was writing to my parents to send me ice skates and we also smuggled in
pieces of wood to create barriers for the rink. That was already in the year
1955 and right after that I was released so I "unfortunately" didn't play
hockey in the prison camp.

Could you summarize what comes to mind when you hear the name, Jáchymov?

A huge amount of suffering of the best people who were Czechoslovakians,
or people who followed their convictions and belief took place here.
They were people who knew what Communism was and were fighting against it.
I think that Jáchymov was the suffering of a nation that can never be
forgotten.

Mr. Bubník, I think this was comprehensive and thank you very much for
the series of recordings we have done together.

I am really happy I can talk about it like this, because out of our group
of twelve there are only Mr. Konopásek, who doesn't really remember the stories
anymore, and me. Thank God "Uncle Alzheimer" who I keep chasing away, hasn't
visited me yet.

Thank you very much for the interview.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Sokol - The Czech association of Sokol (COS) is a civil association,
whose almost 190,000 members attend voluntary sports, which include physical
activities in clubs.

[2] LTC Praha - abbreviation for Czech ice-hockey association (1903 - 1950).

[3] Exile stands for absence of a man or a group in a home country. In
consequences of deportation, expulsion, stripping citizenship, political,
national, race or religious chasing.

[4] „Domecek" (in Czech „little house", read [domacheck]) - "The place in
Kapucínská street in Prague - Hradcany, called "domecek", became the specific
prison for soldiers. It was an institution of the 5th department of the
Headquarters or known also as OBZ. There they mainly kept soldiers, who were
forced to testify in certain ways via cruel inspecting methods." (source:
BÍLEK, J., Nástin vývoje vojenského vezenství v letech 1945 - 1953, s. 127.

[5] The staff captain František Pergl alias „Dry linden" or „Black penicillin"
was „only" a caretaker of the „domecek", that means a custodian of the 5th
department of Headquarters in Kapucínská street. Pergl was known for his
brutality already because of his service in the prewar Czechoslovakian army.
He met every command given to him by investigators to persecute prisoners
and he himself made up various styles of torture.

[6] OBZ - the press agency for the Czechoslovakian army.

[7] Pankrác - prison in Prague

[8] JUDr. Milada Horáková was a Czech politician, executed during the
communist political processes in the fifties, for putative conspiracy and
high treason.

[9] Rudé právo - (in English „Red right") before 1989 daily newspaper of
the communist party.

[10] Highest court stands for the court organ, which has different
functions in countries - in general it is an organ that oves the last
decision and against which there is not another reparation allowed.

[11] The prison Plzen - Bory is situated in the western part of Bohemia,
during the communist era it was one of the strictest prisons, where mainly
political prisoners were placed.

[12] Mjr. Trepka - was the head of solitary confinement in Plzen - Bory.
He was known for his brutal practise and violence towards prisoners.

[13] The guard Brabec was especially known for his brutality towards
the prisoners.

[14] Kremlin refers (here ironically) to The Kremlin, which is a historic
fortified complex at the heart of Moscow. The complex serves as the official
residence of the President of Russia.

[15] Lenora is a small town by Prachatice, Southern Bohemia.

[16] Gulag was one of the departments of the secret police in Socialistic
bloc, managing a system of concentration and working camps in SSSR. The
word gulag was then used for a group of these camps and camps under this
institution.

[17] Koh-i-Noor Hardmuth a.s. is a Czech producer of writing and stationary
products.

[18] „Anton" - a closed police van for transport of prisoners.

[19] Podbaba is a lokal name for neighbourhood in Dejvice.

[20] Antonín Zápotocký was the president of Czechoslovakia at that time.

[21] „moták" - a secret message usually distributed among prisoners on a small
piece of paper.

[22] Jáchymov is a spa town close to Karlovy Vary, near the German border,
known for its mining history. Working camps for prisoners were often
established near these mines and political prisoners tend to call them
"concentration" camps. Historians rather prefer working camps - concentration
camp is a term connected with Nazism. Concentration camps existed in Southern
Africa already in the early 20th century. Great Britain built them there during
the second Boer War. In Czechoslovakia there were "vindicative" prisoners and
later also political and criminal prisoners. Prisoners were used as cheap labor.
Political prisoners in Jáchymove mined uranium ore.

[23] Vindicative prisoners - prisoners sentenced on a basis of „vindicative
decrees" for cooperation and collaboration with Nazi Germany. A state prisoner
was also called a political prisoner, then there was a category of criminal
prisoners.

[24] Ruzyne is the name of a Prague district and a district prison. Some well
known people were kept there during the Communist totality.

[25] KUKAL, Karel: Deset krížu. (Ten crosses). 2. Vydání, upravené a rozšírené.
Rychnov nad Knežnou: Ježek, 2003. 127 s.

[26] International song is an international anthem of the labor movement,
which is sung in many counries by communists and sometimes socialists and
social democrats.

[27] Slánský - Political processes launched against all sections of society,
which did not miss even the main representatives of the communist party. From
1950 the state secret police concentrated on „searching the enemy even among
its own." The leading communist investigated was Secretary-General of the
communist party Rudolf Slánský.

 

[Bruce Berglund]

The first time the Russians beat a foreign hockey (bandy) team was in 1901, when they won two games against Vyborg (Viipuri in Finnish), then part of The Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1903 they won against the German team Uhlenhorster HC.
By 1906 St. Petersburg had a four team league and the sport was really popular in the city.

Thanks for the correction about the Russians playing abroad.

Bandy in Leipzig is a fascinating story. Even after puck hockey gained popularity in the rest of Germany, bandy remained the popular sport in Leipzig.

 

[Bruce Berglund]

So you are able to decipher from the documents of StB or OBZ which statements were honestly said by the players and which statements were enforced?

The interrogation transcripts read like the long statement from Bubník you included, a statement we regard as honest. The players' transcripts have that same kind of narrative detail you see in Bubník's statement, the kind of detail only they could provide from having experienced the situations. They spoke of what they said in particular situations, what others said, what they were thinking. They describe the same episodes (waiting at the airport, going to the pub) – their accounts overlap, but each player also offers a unique detail from his own perspective. They admitted their anger toward the state sports authorities. They backtracked when they remembered something and added new details. Each player's transcript goes on for dozens of pages. The file for these interrogations is huge. In short, these documents are not summary confessions they were forced to sign. They are not fictional statements the StB agents created. And they are not statements the players thought up to save themselves from torture. There is a narrative coherence and authenticity in these statements. A player would incriminate himself in one place, and then try to cover himself by blaming his teammates in another place. These are the real statements of young men who likely thought the best way to clear themselves was to be honest. They admitted to the incident at the pub, claiming they were drunk, although each threw their teammates under the bus for saying the worst things about the Communist Party and Klement Gottwald. But they didn't think, as I said above, that meeting an American who was part of the diplomatic corps was any kind of treasonous activity.

One specific quotation that appeared in each player's transcript was a statement Zábrodský made to them: "I am the team."

 

[Theokritos]

Thanks @Robert Gordon Orr for providing the interview. A gruesome but very interesting read.

 

[DN28]

The interrogation transcripts read like the long statement from Bubník you included, a statement we regard as honest. The players' transcripts have that same kind of narrative detail you see in Bubník's statement, the kind of detail only they could provide from having experienced the situations. They spoke of what they said in particular situations, what others said, what they were thinking. They describe the same episodes (waiting at the airport, going to the pub) – their accounts overlap, but each player also offers a unique detail from his own perspective. They admitted their anger toward the state sports authorities. They backtracked when they remembered something and added new details. Each player's transcript goes on for dozens of pages. The file for these interrogations is huge.

No doubt the interrogation transcripts include plenty of facts.. Just like the interrogation transcripts of many other political prisoners of various "enemy classes" contain a lot of factual truth. But that was not my point.

In short, these documents are not summary confessions they were forced to sign.

Haven't you read what @Robert Gordon Orr posted above? The torture in "Domeček" under the direction of František Pergl? How can you still think that the documents were signed in voluntary conditions?

My main point is this: you've written that the case against players wasn't "fabricated" which contradicts everything I've ever read or heard on the subject. Modrý, Bubník, Konopásek, Kobranov and others were simply not "spies", they were not "traitors", and they did not plan an emigration.

I'll gladly admit I'm wrong but not until you substantiate your claims. Player testimonies given under torture just cannot be taken as a legitimite evidence of intended defection or spying for Western powers.

Maybe you also studied different documents which hadn't originated from secret services or police departments?

 

[Bruce Berglund]

How can you still think that the documents were signed in voluntary conditions?. . . My main point is this: you've written that the case against players wasn't "fabricated" which contradicts everything I've ever read or heard on the subject. Modrý, Bubník, Konopásek, Kobranov and others were simply not "spies", they were not "traitors", and they did not plan an emigration.

Of course, they weren't "voluntary conditions." They were under arrest. My point is that the accounts of the episode, as recorded in the interrogation transcripts, were not made up by the police, nor were they made up by the players to placate the police.

The facts of the case are not fabricated. There were contacts with an American. There were discussions among the players about emigrating. Modrý was adamant that he didn't plan the emigration, but he did acknowledge that the players discussed emigrating when they went to London. What the players did NOT understand, as I've said, is that the world had changed around them. The law had changed. Bubník says above, "I didn't have a clue what was spreading around and what Communism was." That was the case with all of them, even with Modrý, who was smarter than the rest. They didn't understand why they would be held in suspicion for meeting an American. That's why they all were surprised when they were charged with treason. As I write in the book, the government used them as an example of "socialist justice." Because they didn't concern themselves with politics, and because they received benefits from the Communist government after winning the world championship the previous year, they were unaware that what they were doing was against the law of this newly established regime.

Yes, I did read Bubník's account. Unfortunately, his memory had some gaps after 50 years. He said that he didn't confess. Bubník's first transcript was dated March 15, the day after he was arrested. He gave more detail than anybody, right from the start, about Modrý, about contacts with Bowe, about conversations within the team about emigration. His interrogation transcripts were longer than those of any other player, and contained the most incriminating details. He even gave information about friends who wanted him to smuggle money and goods back into Czechoslovakia when the team traveled abroad – information that was unrelated to the case involving him and his teammates.

Bubník said at the end of the interview above that Stanislav Konopásek "doesn't really remember the stories anymore." But if Bubník's interview took place in 2009 or 2008, it was just after Konopásek had worked with a Czech journalist to publish his memoir about the whole episode.

 

[Theokritos]

@Bruce Berglund:

After the 1950 setback inflicted upon the Czechoslovak national team, the Canadians kept dominating the international scene throughout the 1950s. The Soviets managed to snatch two titles away from them (1954, 1956), but then for several years failed to win anything and it wasn't until 1963 that their great dominance began. Still, I would argue that a new chapter in the development of a "hockey world" already began in 1957 with the first Soviet tour of Canada: up until North American teams had regularly toured Europe, but from now on the exchange was mutual and European teams also toured North America. The next chapter would then begin with the 1972 Summit Series that brought those exchanges on a higher level.

Without giving away too much, could you give us an idea of how your book treats that 1957-1969/70 period and which aspects you look into?

 

[Bruce Berglund]

One chapter is devoted to that period from the mid-1950s to 1972. That was a fun chapter to write, but it was also difficult. A lot happened during that period, but my editors were strict about the book's length. There was some terrific source material from different archives that ended up on the cutting-room floor: material about the financial scandals surrounding the 1959 Belleville McFarlands, NHL decisions regarding expansion franchises, the development of the Soviet program after the losses of the late-1950s, Canadians playing American college hockey in the 50s and 60s, Bunny Ahearne's leadership of the IIHF, Avery Brundage's attempt to end the Winter Olympics. I ended up cutting more from that chapter than any other.

What I ended up focusing on was how hockey developed in different regions outside Canada. For example, the section I excerpted at the start of this whole discussion, about kids playing hockey in the Soviet Union, comes from this chapter. I also discuss the sport's development in postwar Sweden and Finland. One section looks at hockey's growth in my home state of Minnesota, as driven by the baby boom and expansion of the suburbs.

This is also a chapter where politics are interconnected with hockey. I discuss another famous episode from Czechoslovakia: the riots in Czech and Slovak cities after the national team defeats the Soviets at the 1969 world championships. The section on hockey in the Nordic countries looks at connections to social-democratic policies. And my discussion of hockey in Canada centers on growing criticism about the NHL's influence, which were a reflection of broader fears at the time that Canada was becoming an economic and political appendage of the United States.

 

[kaiser matias]

Avery Brundage's attempt to end the Winter Olympics

Now this is something interesting. I knew Brundage was cantankerous at the best of times, but had not heard of this before.