Altogether for five years Rudy Krejčí was hiding from the communist Secret Police in a small closet in his parents' house. Then he decided to escape to the West. It happened in 1953 when Krejčí was twenty-four years old.

The daring escape plan proposed Krejčí`s father. He was a railroader and he got the idea that his son could hide in a sort of wooden coffin that would be buried in coal in a railway carriage. It was a very courageous idea; the Iron Curtain was already well guarded that year. All trains travelling to the West including freight trains had to undergo inspection. Railway carriages were controlled by guards with dogs, they stabbed bars into coal...


Photo gallery

Rudy Krejčí
Rudy KrejčíRudy KrejčíRudy Krejčí

Photo of the gate of train control (Security Services Archive)
Photo of the gate of train control (Security Services Archive)

Bridge over the railway line near Břeclav
Bridge over the railway line near Břeclav

Goldsmiths in coal (Archive of MPČR)
Goldsmiths in coal (Archive of MPČR)


Walking route suggestion

  1. Břeclav
  2. Břeclav – station
  3. Břeclav – Poštorná, along the railway line to the bridge