鈥淒agmar 艩颈尘办辞惫谩 Pro啪ila 膶trn谩ct Let V 沤al谩艡i.鈥 P铆seck媒 den铆k, March 7, 2017. https://pisecky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/dagmar-simkova-prozila-ctrnact-let-v-zalari-20170307.html.
Dagmar 艩颈尘办辞惫谩 was a political prisoner during the communist repression. She suffered a long prison sentence and was able to pursue her education and help others in the prison system later in life.
Her father鈥檚 career as a banker led to her family being targeted. The national administrator had strangers move into her family鈥檚 villa, and her sister was unable to attend university on behalf of their bourgeois origins. In response, 艩颈尘办辞惫谩 involved herself with handing out anti-communist leaflets. She even painted posters ridiculing Klement Gottwald and Anton铆n 窜谩辫辞迟辞肠办媒, two presidents of Czechoslovakia.
In 1952, she was arrested for harboring two military deserters and sentenced to 15 years for "anti-state activities". She responded she was sorry she could not do more against the regime. A short escape from the 沤别濒颈别锄辞惫肠别 labor camp added three years to her sentence.
S虒imkova虂, Dagmar. Byly Jsme Tam Taky. Toronto: 68-Publ., 1980.
In her autobiography, Byly jsme tam taky, 艩颈尘办辞惫谩 sheds light on the struggles and humiliation of women in communist-era prisons and labor camps. 鈥楢ccording to them [the prison authorities], we are swine, bitches, smelly discharge, whores, and beasts 鈥 A woman had to be shamed for her femininity, she had to be deprived of her gender鈥.
Yet, prisoners also developed bonds and friendships that cultivated strength and helped them cope with their situation. 鈥楳ost of us survived with a healthy mind, and it was determined by the fact that we are women. Not that women had easy conditions in prison, there was no difference in the level of cruelty, but women developed different survival instincts compared to men鈥.
During her incarceration, 艩颈尘办辞惫谩 participated in hunger strikes to protest the ill-treatment of prisoners. Her protests even included 鈥渕utual tenderness, kindness, attention, and courtesy.鈥 She refused to work on Sundays because of her Catholic faith, leading to her having to pay the state for the time she did not work.
After being freed, 艩颈尘办辞惫谩 helped found K-231, an organization associating political prisoners of the communist regime during the liberalization of the Prague Spring in 1968. This club was deemed a center of counter-revolution and dissolved after the August invasion, which halted the Czechoslovak reforms. This led to her emigration to Australia in 1968, where she graduated from two universities in art history and social work, became an artist, stuntwoman, and prison therapist, and joined Amnesty International.
Written by: Jaime Johnston
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Team, IASH. 鈥淒agmar 艩颈尘办辞惫谩.鈥 Dangerous Women Project, May 30, 2016. https://dangerouswomenproject.org/2016/05/20/dagmar_simkova/.
Televize, 膶esk谩. 鈥淰zpom铆nky 沤eny V臎zn臎n茅 V 50. Letech: Byly Jsme Tam Taky.鈥 膶T24 - Nejd暖v臎ryhodn臎j拧铆 zpravodajsk媒 web v 膶R - 膶esk谩 televize, October 15, 2010. https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/domaci/1310320-vzpominky-zeny-veznene-v-50-letech-byly-jsme-tam-taky.