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118 | cZEcHosloVaKia lenka reinerová (1916–2008) Reinerová was a remnant of the once vibrant German-speaking Jewish community of Prague and the last female writer of that city to write in German. Arrested in conjunction with the Rudolf Slánský affair, she was placed in investigative detention for fifteen months, after which she and her family were required to live in the provinces away from Prague. Her major work dealing with her time behind bars is Alle Farben der Sonne und der Nacht (All the Colors of Sun and Night, 2003). It is an account of her arrest and imprisonment in a windowless cell where, in the company of another female prisoner named Dana, she reviews events in her life both big and small. The book is noteworthy for its detailed descriptions of the many interrogations Reinerová had to undergo for reasons beyond her understanding. The following excerpts are from Alle Farben der Sonne und der Nacht (Berlin: Aufbau, 2003), 18–19, 84–88, 92–96, and have been translated from German by Harold B. Segel. from Alle Farben der Sonne und der Nacht For an entire month I was detained in an improvised cell in the basement of a splendid villa belonging to State Security. Then one morning they bound my eyes, bundled me into some vehicle, and drove off. Everything without a single word of explanation. After the auto had stopped for a certain length of time, I was taken out—with my eyes still bound—and led into some building. Stale cold air surrounded me. A gate creaked, I was pushed in somewhere, and then came the command: “Remove the blind from your eyes!” I was standing in a prison cell, at the beginning of my solitary confinement. No one bothered to tell me that the institution I was in was the notorious Ruzyně. The interrogations that were now initiated were irregular, but frequent. Mostly during the day, but sometimes I was also fetched at night. . . . Mornings, we had to get up at 5:30 and only at 9:30 at night were we allowed to lie down. Our days consisted of sixteen long hours. The burdensome idleness resulted only in burdensome fatigue. The cell was insufficiently aired out and was outfitted with just two small flap seats covered in metal and a barely larger slab that served as an eating table. During the day, our two straw mattresses were folded against the wall, at night, the seats and the so-called table. The cell was so small this entire setup could not be let down from the wall all at once. A Turkish privy was located in a corner, above which we also washed ourselves. For drinking, we were given a paper cup into which you could collect water if you stood with one foot on the privy and with the other on a bar cZEcHosloVaKia | 119 directly above it. That was nearly an acrobatic feat. Apart from the cup and the daily ration of bread, nothing else was to be kept in the cell. The most basic hygienic items also had to be requested each time from the guard, who gave you three sheets of toilet paper per day or none at all, depending on her mood. Most of the time we lacked sleep. When we lay on the straw mattress, the light bulb on the opposite wall shone directly into our eyes the entire night. Fortunately, it was weak. Incidentally, during these hours there was more noise than during the day. Sleepers who did not lie as instructed were awakened by the guard with heavy banging on the cell door and loud commands. The prison regulation demanded that when prisoners awaiting trial slept, they had to have their arms above the thin blanket up to the height of their elbows and their faces turned toward the cell door, so that they were always visible through the peephole. This was supposed to be in the best interests of the prisoner , it was often emphasized, to avoid their harming themselves in a sudden fit of lightheadedness. But sleepers constantly tossed and turned absolutely without discipline. Who knows what dreams they had! Undoubtedly it was the cold that caused them to move about and to stick their hands under the blanket. And so you could hear the cry up and down the corridor: “The hands! Damn it, should I come help you?” Or the supervisors simply banged on the metal doors. That resounded through the entire corridor...

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