Latin, boys – speak only Latin from now on!

The StB started arresting people who, as they believed, were in contact with the Světlana resistance group in 1949. Jan Janků was among those arrested and was sentenced to twenty years in prison, which he was to serve in Mírov. “They put me in the death division – my return was undesirable. They did that mostly to priests and people they wanted to eliminate. I was digging a ditch along with other prisoners. Warden Kamenský told me once: ‘Janků, I can’t bear to look at this. I won’t be held responsible for you.’ He took me to the hospital door, let me stand there, and said: ‘They have jailed you, so they better take care of you,’” he recalled. Janků was lucky in that the hospital was just being organized in Mírov. There was no pharmacist – and he became one. His job included running the pharmacy, procuring medications, and assisting in minor surgeries. Jan Janků was with many inmates during the final moments of their lives, and provided the extreme unction to many priests. As a deeply religious person, he was actively involved in the spiritual life in Mírov. He assisted during secret masses, trafficked wafers, and as a pharmacist he made the wine needed for the services and provided it to priests in eye drop jars. He provided wafers in medication bottles. “It was dangerous – they did random checks. One day they came unexpectedly: ‘Janků, where is the wine?’ – ‘What wine?’ – ‘We will show you.’ So I came to the pharmacy – and the wine was gone. Happily, the hospital leader hid it,” he remembered. Pharmacist Janků also tried to obtain some extra vitamins for the inmates: “I was lucky to get some plum butter. I wrote out “pulpa pruneri” in a prescription order; the official who was in charge of the medication orders for the prison got the clue and sent half a kilo of plum butter to the prison. So I said: ‘Latin, boys – speak only Latin from now on!’”