"The Gestapo, as opposed to the Czechoslovak State Security, didn't force people to confess on the basis of trumped-up trials."
Ignác Bilík was born on 31 July 1920 in the village of Boršice, near Buchlovice, in the region of Uherské Hradiště. He finished his studies of teaching at primary schools in Svatý Jan pod Skalou. As a member of the Defence of the Nation he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941 and sentenced to six years for high treason. He went through several German prisons, from which he was set free in 1945. In 1951 he was arrested by Communists for harbouring and assisting with getaways of wanted persons. He was interrogated in Uherské Hradiště where he spent a year in custody and then was sentenced to twelve years in prison for high treason. He went through prisons in Mírov and Leopoldov where he did his time together with Gustav Husák and Richard Slánský. Then there were the Uranium mines in the region of Jáchymov - Rovnost, Prokop and Vykmanov. Ignác Bilík was released under an amnesty in 1960. As a qualified teacher he has never come back to his original profession and made his living as a bricklayer.
