When We Heard the Keys in the Keyhole We Got Stiff

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Jaromír Jarmara went through series of brutal question in Bartolomějská Street, (police headquarters), and was transferred to Pankrác Remand Prison in 1949: “There they gave me the cell and threw me a blanket. I smelled the blanket and told to myself: ‛Everything is bloody, dried-up gunk. How can I stand it? ’” And the questionings seemed endless. Beating and humiliation over and over again. Each prisoner was afraid whose turn it is: “As we heard the keys in the keyhole we got stiff and waited for who they call." They still tried to get Jaromír´s confession. The interrogators were irritated by his denying so they used sadistic methods. During one of the last questionings they caused him mild brain injury. After the trial, Jaromír Jarmara got back to Pankrác Remand Prison again. Though he was condemned to life imprisonment he was, by mistake, put into the death row where the condemned waited for death: “It was a horrible night. I was in the death row.” Afterwards he was replaced to the ordinary cell and worked in the prison joinery. Once, his foreman sent him to fix the doorsill in the correction room. Jaromír Jarmara never forgot what he heard and saw there. In that moment they tortured his brother Věroslav there. “I felt awful. I was used to beating, but I felt so sorry for him because he could not defend himself. His hands and legs tied and neck in chains," Jarmara recalled.

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Jaromír Jarmara

Mr. Jaromír Jarmara was born in 1923 in Třeština, near Mohelnice. After the events of February of 1948, being a frontier guard, he was in contact with lieutenant Voborský who cooperated with the resistance group called "Praha-Žatec," (Prague - Žatec). This group intended to overthrow the communist dictatorship using a military coup. Jaromír Jarmara used to pass them information about people from the West who cooperated with the StB, (StB - former secret state police - translator´s note). Unfortunately this group was revealed and Mr. Jarmara was arrested. Later, on March 2nd 1949, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The original verdict was the death sentence and some of the Třeština citizen didn´t hesitate to sign it. Mr. Jarmara spent nearly ten and a half of years in miserable life conditions, specifically in Pankrác, Bory, Leopoldov and in Valdice prisons. During these years he met many of the famous people such as Colonel Karel Lukas or General Karel Janoušek and other officials. Also his brother, Věroslav Jarmara, was arrested because of political problems. While in Leopoldov prison, Jaromír Jarmara married his girlfriend, Svatava, on behalf of his father. She was dismissed immediately from her work however and couldn´t find another job for a few years. After Mr. Jarmara´s release, they returned to his home town. The local inhabitants' didn´t welcomed him though and he even could get any job there. He even had to face the threats of new imprisonment for parasitism. Finally he got job at the MEZ factory in Postřelmov. He got the worst job there and was under permanent supervision by the director. Even his kids experienced many problems including admittance to their school. Today Mr. Jarmara lives in Hrabová.

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Praha 4 - Pankrác, Soudní 988/1

Available in: English | Česky

Za první republiky se zde popravovalo na šibenici. Počet popravených ovšem vůbec nelze srovnávat s obdobím nacistické okupace, kdy bylo v letech 1943–1945 v tzv. sekyrárně popraveno gilotinou přes tisíc osob, mezi nimi i ženy. Po válce se zde konaly veřejné popravy nacistických zločinců a kolaborantů. Popravy pokračovaly i za komunismu, od roku 1954 zde bylo jediné popraviště v Československu. Poslední trest smrti byl vykonán v únoru 1989, celkový počet popravených je 1580.