They Shouted: “Hang them!”
In October 1950, Václav Jozefy, along with 24 more people, was brought before the court in the Smetana House in Litomyšl. This concoct trial was chaired by the rector of Piarist College in Litomyšl František Ambrož Stříteský. The majority of the charged people were high school, technical college or university students. Václav Jozefy was only sixteen years old at that time, and the youngest among the accused. His recollection of the trial follows: “I didn’t say much because I was the youngest, but I recall the environment there and the atmosphere. There were women from the factories in Litomyšl and they were totally indoctrinated. They shouted at us and spat at us. Inside of the Smetana House, they were even allowed to poke us with their umbrellas, which was actually really painful. They were pointing at us and shouting: ‘Hang them!’. I got an ex official public defender whom I saw for the first time in the court room. And he told me: ‘Agree with everything and be happy that they don't hang you.” As a minor, Václav Jozefy left the court in Litomyšl with the sentence of six months of imprisonment.
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Václav Jozefy
Václav Jozefy was a step-son of a well known bibliophile, cultural patron, and, after the year 1948, a municipal librarian of the town of Litomyšl Josef Portman. In 1944 he entered the first class of the Grammar School in Litomyšl and he studied there till May 1950. He was one of the best students. He sympathized with the Scouting movement, although he never joined any Scout organisation. In 1949, at only sixteen, he joined activities of a student group called "Hvězda" (Star). Its goal (under the direction of another student - Miroslav Kohout) was an active resistance to activities and pressure of the newly established Czechoslovak Youth Association. Jozefy made a list of students, which should have served for contacting the students who resisted signing the membership of the Czechoslovak Youth Association and who could support non-Communist candidates to the School board of the Czechoslovak Youth Association in the following elections. The group did not exert any major activities because Miroslav Kohout was arrested on the basis of an unrelated incident before the summer holidays of the year 1949. After this, Václav Jozefy attended school for another one year, but then he was expelled on the basis of a previous interrogation. After this he was the victim of a fabricated political trial against rector Stříteský and other students of the Grammar School. In the summer holidays Jozefy entered a job as a worker in a sugar refinery in Cerekvice. On 16th September 1950 the whole group was arrested and in total 25 people (included Jozefy) were in court at the beginning of September. The State Court sentenced him to 6 months of imprisonment for grouping against the state. He served his sentence in a prison in the Institute for Juvenile Delinquents in Zámrsk. Josef Portman, Václav's stepfather, was absent from the court hearing because of his alleged health problems. In fact, he saw the actions of his step-son as a discredit of his own name and renounced him. Václav Portman accepted the name of his departed father - Jozefy. Václav Jozefy was musically gifted and played piano since the age of five. After he entered the army service in 1956, he won the army music competition and thus he could point out his status as a second-rate citizen and was allowed to study again. Before, he had applied eleven times, unsuccessfully. In the years 1958-1960 he was allowed to graduated from the Grammar School and then he continued with studies at the Chemical-Technological University in Pardubice. As an engineer, he became a manager in the food and sugar industry.
