Ostrava, StB Regional Directorate
30. dubna 1682/24, 702 00 Ostrava-Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz, Czech Republic
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The worst three months in his life

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In April 1951, the then seventeen-year-old Lubomír Gižický was transferred to the regional directorate of the Secret State Police, (StB), in Moravská Ostrava. “I really hate to speak about it, frankly, I don’t even like to read the books of the other inmates who experienced the same hell as me. It makes me suffer mentally. These were the worst three months of my life,” says Lubomír Gižický, who was nevertheless eventually willing to give his account of the brutal interrogation practices of the StB. “To this day I haven’t found out who was beating me and who interrogated me. They effectively blindfolded me putting glasses on my eyes that didn’t let any light pass through. A guard led me by the hand into an office where I sat down in a chair. My hands were handcuffed behind my back and I became a punching bag. For three months they interrogated me in this way, even though they knew everything all the time. I don’t understand why they had to do it. When the interrogations finally ended, my heels were smashed and the doctors in Tišnov had to put me back together.” In the end, Lubomír was forced to sign a false protocol on the interrogations: “I looked at it and it said that I had been treated decently in the course of the interrogations. I said that I couldn’t sign this. The investigator pressed a button, the “boys” came in and threw me into the cellar. Without my shoes, wearing only socks, pants and a shirt. It was a room underneath the stairs, maybe just a little bit larger than a chair. I don’t know how much time I spent there because it was completely dark there. I think it was a long time. At first, I was terribly cold lying on the concrete floor but then it stopped to hurt. Then a guard brought me some chicory and half a slice of bread. I told him: ‘tell them that I’ll sign it’.”

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Lubomír Gižický

Lubomír Gižický

Lubomír Gižický was born in Ostrava-Zábřeh in 1933. After the Communist party usurped power, he was refused application to a secondary technical school for his class origin. Together with his uncle he thus planned to escape to the West. While organising the escape, Lubomír mentioned his plans to one classmate who happened to be a secret collaborator of State Security. The classmate suggested they should sabotage the Vítkovice cement plant before leaving, to improve their position when abroad. When they broke into the premises of the cement plant on 19 April 1951, they were immediately arrested by the state police. Lubomír was subject to drastic interrogations by State Security in Moravská Ostrava. Because he was still a minor at the time of the arrest, he received a much milder punishment than was usual at the time for the crimes of high treason, attempted sabotage and espionage; the court sentenced him to six years in prison. He spent four years in a youth prison in Zámrsk, before being released by presidential amnesty. Even after his release he retained the mark of an enemy to the socialist regime, and when he joined the army after completing military service, it did not take long for him to be framed with false charges, demoted and discharged. Until his retirement he was then employed in the construction firm Pozemní stavby Ostrava, where he worked himself up to the position of transport leader for the whole company. He still lives in Ostrava today.

Ostrava, StB Regional Directorate

Available in: English | Česky

The building, which currently serves as the seat of the Ostrava Police Directorate and the Regional Police Directorate of the Moravian-Silesian region, was in the period of the Communist dictatorship the seat of the StB Regional Directorate. During the years 1948-1989, this place would often be packed with hundreds of political prisoners who were brutally interrogated by using physical and psychological violence. On August 21, 1968, a crowd consisting of hundreds of people attacked the StB Regional Directorate, enraged about the presence of the Soviet troops.

Ostrava, StB Regional Directorate

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Class enemy

Class enemy

Zdeněk Růžička
The worst three months in his life

The worst three months in his life

Lubomír Gižický
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