Karolka, thanks!

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Karel Vavřinka was nineteen years old when he was arrested and imprisoned. Along with a few friends, he had been publishing pamphlets called “The Voices of the Silenced,” which were supposed to rouse the people, make them more active and aware of the false communist propaganda. The originators of the leaflets were soon caught, however. Karel Vavřínek was arrested in the summer of 1949 and convicted in a massive trumped-up political process. Originally, he got the “rope.” However, Karel’s mother eventually managed to find a lawyer who cost her “60,000 an hour” and who managed to mitigate the sentence to three and a half years of prison. Karel served the first part of his term in a prison in Leopoldov in Slovakia. The inmates were tasked with producing wicker jars to be filled with wine. Karel’s task was to distribute the wicker to the inmates in the prison cells. One of the Leopoldov prisoners at that time was JUDr. Gustav Husák, who later became the president of the Czechoslovakian Socialist Republic in the years 1975-1989. Karel Vavřínek recalls: “I still remember Husák telling me his characteristic ‘thanks, Karolka’, every time I brought him the wicker.”

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Karel Vavřínek

Ing. Karel Vavřínek was born on August 20, 1929, in Plzeň, the eldest of three sons in a wealthy family. His father was an entrepreneur active in a number of areas. He owned several shops and real estate in Plzeň. Karel’s mother took care of the family. Since his youth, Karel was actively involved in scouting and in 1948, he completed his studies at a business academy in Plzeň. Disgusted by the events following the February 1948 Communist coup, he began to publish anti-communist leaflets entitled “Voices of the Silenced” with a few of his friends. In May 1949, he was arrested together with another member of their group. He was subsequently interrogated and sentenced to death in a trial that was held in Bratislava. The sentenced was later mitigated to 3.5 years in prison. He served his term in the Leopold prison and later in the labor camps of the Jáchymov mines, where he worked in Bratrství mine until his release in 1952. Thereafter, he kept working in Jáchymov for another year as a geodesist. Based on false conviction, both of his parents were imprisoned and subsequently deprived of their property. Karel graduated from the Czech Technical University and worked in the chemical industry. In 1970, he was rehabilitated. He currently lives in Prague and is involved in the publishing of the Almanac of Bohemian aristocratic families.

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Leopoldov

Available in: English | Česky

The Leopoldov prison was one of the worst in all of Czechoslovakia. The political prisoners were interrogated there in especially cruel ways, as well as denied medical treatment and necessary medicine. Their human rights were systematically violated. A number of them died in consequence of cruel treatment and neglect of medical care.