Class enemy

On 29 December 1949, Zdeněk Růžička was arrested and transported to the residence of the State Security Regional Administration in Ostrava for interrogation. Though he committed no offence, the communist investigators Krhut and Walder intended to involve him in a fabricated political trial with members of a subversive group. "They made me sit on a chair and began circling around me. So tell us about your subversive activities. I said: 'I'm not aware of any subversive activity. I would like you to ask me questions, and I will answer them truthfully.' All of a sudden I got hit on my head and ear from the back so hard that I fell down from the chair. Mr Krhut declared that from then on he would treat me as a class enemy. That way I learnt how quickly one can turn from an ordinary man into an enemy. They were shooting questions at me till the evening. Then they photographed me and took my fingerprints. My fingers were twice as big after all the beating with a cowhide whip. As they were beating me, my fingertips were all cracked and bleeding. I was doing boxing at the time, so I was used to receiving some beating. My head was flying from one side to another, but it had no effect on me. They smashed my teeth, my fillings fell out. And when they realized it didn't work, they began beating me with the cowhide whip. Then I was transported to prison,'" recounts Zdeněk Růžička, who experienced several interrogations made by those pervert state security officers.