The wolf pack

In 1989, Jaroslav Popelka found himself in prison in Nové Sedlo for attempting to found the Green Party. He had already been in several other prisons before, but as he remembers Nové Sedlo, where he spent three months, was the worst of them: “They had a Vertex plant there where the boys manufactured glass wool, they were covered in boils where the wool cut their hands. The food was terrible. They weren't allowed to give us raw vegetables. To completely ruin us physically, I guess. I remember my first impression from when I arrived at the prison. Everyone was grey. Like a pack of wolves. Grey uniforms, grey faces. The ones who’d been there a few years already were usually missing teeth and suffering from vitamin deficiency due to the bad diet. In this way they were gradually grinding the people to dust.” Immediately after his arrival, Jaroslav Popelka stood up against the kapos, (prisoner bosses), who victimised the prisoners, and they in turn attempted to falsely accuse him of starting a riot. “I appealed to the prisoners not to take it so easily. Things began to get hot. They started voicing their opinions, gathering up. When the kapos found out, they assaulted me on the corridor. I remember three of them jumping me, they pressed the red alarm button which signalised that a riot had broken out. They pressed it and claimed I had attacked them with a knife. They threw a knife next to me. I probably lost consciousness for a moment. I remember opening my eyes and starring into the barrels of sub-machine guns. I remained lying, saw the gaping jaws of the guard dogs. They threw me into the cooler. Accused me of assault, which meant a year extra, at least. I waited in the cooler, wondering what my fate would be. I was lucky in the end, because some of the prisoners had heard the kapos plan their attack on me. They told the officials, so it was one testimony against the other. In the end they didn't give me the extra year, but I ended spending forty days in the cooler for attempting to start a riot,” he recalled.