Vojtěch Klečka
Mr. Vojtěch Klečka was born on February 17th 1921 in Luleč village in Vyškov region. He was one of three children. His mom, who was seriously sick, died before the war began. Through his brother's advice, he became a member of one of the most successful espionage nets operating against Nazis - the Soviet Red Band. Thanks to his job as a waiter on the Mitropa trains operating between Germany and Austria to the Protectorate he functioned in the spy net as a connector. He transported important materials, documents or even weapons. In 1943 he got arrested by Gestapo agents, but he managed to escape. After that he was forced to hide under fake ID documents. After the war he cut ties with his brother. Vojtěch fought against the communists (he wasn´t aware of who he was working for during the war) and his brother František remained a communist supporter. By 1948, he had married, and Vojtěch Klečka decided to organize the illegal transfer of emigrants to the West. He performed his job in the Bohemian Forest (Šumava). In the mean time his brother worked as a chief agent of the Czechoslovak Intelligence service; he was caught in West Germany. Vojtěch Klečka received a message about his brother´s arrest and via the Bohemia Forest he came to the CIC. From there he was transported to Nuremberg where his brother František was held at that time. Here Vojtěch Klečka became a CIC agent and returned back to Czechoslovakia to fulfill his espionage tasks as an agent - walker accompanied by Miroslav Dvořáček. He (and also his colleagues' from CIC) moved to the German town Lambach. He was successfully transferring emigrants until June 17th 1949, when he got caught along with a Belgian agent in the main train station in Prague. After a short custody he was sentenced to death on November 16th 1950. However, his verdict was changed later to "life imprisonment" through the merits of his anti-Nazi resistance activities. He was serving his sentence in Bory prison, in Ruzyně prison, in Leopoldov, in Pankrác, in Jáchymov and in Bytíz prisons. As he said, it was extremely difficult to gain some trust in the jail, because his brother was still being held in West Germany prison while Vojtěch Klečka himself was supposed to be a spy of the Western services which have detained his brother. With the help of an eleven day hunger strike he got out of Leopoldov and after some complications he got to Bytíz prison. He was release after fourteen years in 1963. He couldn´t find a steady job for a long time. He graduated from the Hotel school and at the end he found himself a job as the watcher in the National Theater. He retired in 1988. Currently he lives in Prague and to his life story he adds: ´The very best years that I was looking forward to - to be raising my sons, I spent in jail.´ He died on June 26th 2012 in Prague.
