You’re worse than the Gestapo

Ignác Bilík, thanks to his vast experience, had the opportunity to compare the “quality of accommodation” of Nazi prisons and of the Communist prison in Uherské Hradiště. The comparison did not turn out favorably for the latter regime, because the Gestapo, according to his experience, did not try to force the interrogatees to confess to fabricated allegations: “But then I was interrogated by Višenka and Zlámalík from Polešovice. Višenka asked me: ‘Mr Bilík, what do you think of us?’ And I said: ‘That you’re worse than the Gestapo.’ And he was taken aback by that... When I was searched, they found a book which had mottos of the Sokol from the last gathering. The following was written there: ‘Beneš belongs to the Sokol gathering, Gottwald belongs to the rubbish dump.’ First they claimed that I had made it up and started to spread it. So, I told them that I wasn’t that active. When I had told them that they were worse than the Gestapo, that Višenka for three weeks tried to make me tell them who gave me that motto. I told them, that I didn’t make it up, nor did I spread it, but that I just kept it as a memory. So, he wanted to know whom I got it from. But by that time I was clever enough not to say the name and I took the blame myself. He wanted to prove to me that they weren’t like the Gestapo, so he didn’t torture me, but his urging to say the name took three weeks. But they didn’t want to know more, just who had given me the Sokol mottos. Interrogator Miloš Zlámalík from Polešovice was an assistant. The main one was Višenka, he made himself look important. And that Miloš, as he was bored, he also wanted to make himself useful, so he said: ‘Mr Bilík, you are the one to blame, right? That, Gottwald belongs to the rubbish dump.’ I said: ‘You see, you didn’t hear me say it, but I’ve already heard you say it twice.’ So, my interrogations and all the other things were over. I had said this and they wanted to prove to me that they were better. That Miloš wanted to make fun of me, so he kept repeating it and when I pointed out what he was saying, they felt so humiliated, that they let me be and didn’t want anything from me.”