Executions were a scary form of shadow theater
Irena Šimonová came to the prison hospital in Pankrac in 1949. The preceding custody and in particular the brutal interrogations broke her health and thus she had to be placed in the hospital even before the court ruling. According to Irena, the hospital was also immersed in an atmosphere of fear of the political terror. Regular executions were taking place in the corners of the courtyard of the E-shaped building of the prison hospital. "There was a gallows located in both arms of the E-shaped building of the prison hospital. Unlike in a prison, there were large windows in the hospital and thus they always had to cover the windows with wrapping paper before each execution. But the executions were lit up by a spotlight and thus we could see what was going on behind the covered windows. It was a sort of a horrifying shadow theater. But no one dared to report it," recalled Irena. Today, it is difficult to judge whether this psychologically depressing practice was part of the coercive strategy, or just a curious shortcoming.
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Irena Šimonová
Irena Šimonová, née Vlachová, was born in Ivanov on December 9, 1929. Both of her parents came from wealthy families, their marriage was not happy and they got divorced in 1945. Irena grew up in Vyškov, where she experienced WWII and the subsequent liberation of the city by the Red Army. Due to the unsatisfactory situation in the family after the divorce of her parents, Irena moved to Prague where she - as an underage - was placed under the supervision of her father's friend, a retired lawyer, Dr. Pekuláš. At that time, she studied at the People's University. During her studies, she met František Smrček, with whom she maintained a very strong, albeit on her part only a friendly relationship. After Smrček emigrated to West Germany in 1948, Irena got involved in illegal activities with Smrček's help, trying to help people who were threatened with persecution by the communist regime. In March 1949, she tried to cross the border in the region of Šumava, (Bohemian Forest). However, the smuggler abandoned Irena in the woods and the escape failed. On her return journey by train to Prague on March 21, 1949, she was arrested. After harsh interrogations in St. Bartholomew Street in Prague, a secret trial with "Irena Vlachová and companions" took place on Christmas 1949, in which she was sentenced to 25 years in prison. She was placed in a prison in Prague’s Pankrác and in 1951 she was sent to work in a brick factory in Červené Pečky. From there, along with other inmates, she unsuccessfully tried to escape to West Germany. She got caught by the police and was sentenced to another three years on top of her original sentence. She was placed in the Pardubice prison, where her fellow inmates counted "celebrities" like Růžena Vacková, Dagmar Šimková, Jiřina Štěpničková, Julie Hrušková, and others. Irena Šimonová was released during an amnesty in 1960. She went to her mother in Carlsbad and lived there until 1968. She married and started a family. During the Prague Spring, she got involved in the establishment of the KAN in Carlsbad. In August 1968, she emigrated with her husband to the Netherlands. Here she founded a successful company doing business in the clothing and fashion industry. Today she alternately lives in Prague and in the Netherlands.
