Chewed up Evidence

In 1949, Jaroslav Kopáček was arrested for supporting the anti-communist resistance movement and taken for interrogation to the State Security offices in Strakonice. The arrest was very fast and therefore, there was no time to get rid of the compromising evidence. Luckily, his interrogation got interrupted, because the State Security members were called to different case, and Jaroslav Kopáček was taken to his cell without having his things searched. “They locked me up in a cell, in which it was completely dark. And as I was standing there, they slapped me two times across my face. They slapped me so hard that my face was all red and I had a fever throughout the night,” Jaroslav Kopáček recalls. However, given this opportunity, he managed to chew up the addresses of his friends which he carried in his wallet. Thanks to that, several people were saved from being imprisoned. “I chewed up everything. Some of the papers I swallowed and some I spat out and flushed them down the toilet.” An endless series of identical interrogations followed over the next few months. The same questions were asked over and over again, day and night. State Security members would not let Jaroslav Kopáček get some sleep, food or drink; they were willing to try anything to make him sign what they needed. “The dinner there was served at certain time. They would always call me for interrogation shortly before the dinner, and when I came back, the dinner was gone. They did it on purpose.”