We were tried for our attitude, not for our activities

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Zdeněk Křivka was arrested for his anti-Communist resistance movement activities in August 1949 and transported to the State Security office in Brno. “They took me to Příční street. Their welcome was such, that when the State Security guy pushed me through the door, the first thing the interrogator did, was lock the door. Then I noticed that a file with the name ‘Zdeněk Křivka’ was lying on the table. Without asking me anything, he started to punch me. Then he ordered me to kneel on the chair in such a manner that my legs were sticking out through the opening of the chair. I had to stretch my arms forward and he placed a pencil on top of them. You can try, how long does it take before your arms go numb and the pencil falls down. Every time it fell down I was slapped so powerfully that I fell over with the chair. But all of this is still possible to bear.” It took a week to write the protocol, the interrogations took a and additional seven months. Then, Křivka was transported to Znojmo, where he was put in judicial custody. After that the trial followed. “They tried our attitude, not our activities,” he says today.

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Zdeněk Křivka

Zdeněk Křivka was born on 20th February in 1927 as child of Czech parents in Spisska Nova ves in Slovakia. After the Slovakian proclamation of independence in 1938, whole family left Slovakia and moved to Brno. During the Second World War, Krivka was called to forced labor in the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia. After putsch in February 1948, Krivka joined anticommunist resistance group led by his uncle Petr Krivka. The group was betrayed by an agent and dispersed in August 1949. After one year of interrogation, Zdenek Krivka was sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment. During the next ten years Zdenek Krivka passed trough seven labor camps including one of the worst, Barbora. He was also imprisoned in the Leopoldov prison. Krivka had to wait for his release until May 10 1960, when he was pardoned by a broad amnesty. Till his retirement, he worked manually.For eight years he had drawn water in woods, later he had worked as a warehouseman in railways.

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Brno, KV prison of the State security (StB)

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From 1948 until 1951, the building housed the regional headquarters of the StB. Since 1948, it also served as the prison of the StB with a capacity of 29 prisoners in 25 cells. In November 1952, the prison was shut down, and in June 1954 replaced by a pre-trial custody. The cells were located in the basement and throughout the existence of the prison, dozens of political prisoners were incarcerated here. Today the building houses the police department responsible for arms and police-forces equipment. A commemorative plaque has been placed on the building with the inscription: "To the political prisoners of the years 1948-1989".