The lecture was approximately 3 hours long. At the beginning the authors of the book introduced themselves and talked about their work. They had one of the students to sing and then Mr. Skočný spoke a few words to us. Then the authors explained what the whole operation was about and showed us a presentation. We could also read a short comics about how it worked. At the end we asked questions and they answered them. The ones who were interested also got a book about the subject. The workshop lasted 2 hours and we could work, ask questions, we were listening to the presentation and we had the opportunity to listen to people with authentic experiences - as there was a son of one of the imprisoned political prisoners. The personal contact to those, who were oppressed and to those who remember communist regime doing horrendous things was the best thing about the workshop.
It is very important to remember this terrible past. We need to learn from the past not to repeat it and we mustn´t allow this horrible events happen again.
Action Stone was a provocative method targeting Czechoslovakian citizens, who wanted to illegally cross the border with Germany to get to the American occupation zone. The operation was organised by StB and it started after February 1948. First step was to create a fake state border which was still in Czechoslovakia. When the refugees crossed it, they were stopped by a fake German Border State patrol. After that they were brought to a fake office of the US military counterintelligence field officer. The room looked like it was a real US office so people would believe it. Then they tried to get information from the refugees about their action against the regime and their collaborators. All the information was used against the emigrants and their accomplices. After the interrogation they were arrested. The StB workers sometimes stole from the detainees or even killed them. These actions were organised from 1948 to 1952.
Eliška Bursíková, kvarta B
