Václav Jaroslav Klofáč

“ It is written indelibly with pain into the records of Czech martyrdom in Vienna. Perhaps today, when the situation is different, Papritz would act differently; perhaps he may realize that it is a serious crime to outrage human dignity, which ought to survive the loss of liberty; perhaps he may realize that it would have been a noble thing to use his opportunity to do good even within the prison walls. But it is too late. What is past, cannot be changed. It is impossible to bring back to life those whom the regime of Papritz drove to suicide. ”

“ A jail is a little world in itself, an island in the middle of an ocean, governed by regulations and principles peculiar to itself and terrible to untamed spirits. It is a society without contact with the outside world and consequently lacking any great thoughts. The daily life in the prison brings little change or novelty. ”

“ In Prague a prison is a prison; the military regime impresses upon the inmates its evil sides, but at that the regime there is not altogether devoid of humaneness and justice. But it’s very different in Vienna.
The entire world occupies itself with problems of the greatest importance. And we, the prisoners, were concerned all that time with trifles, with insignificant details which assume a tremendous importance for the man in jail. You outside talked about Lloyd George, Bethmann-Hollweg, Sazonov, Tisza, Wilson; while we thought continually about “adjunct” Papritz. ”