In this lesson, you will explore how young peopole risked their freedom to smuggle forbidden religious literature across the Tatra Mountains, uncovering what their stories reveal about life under communism and the struggle for internal freedom.

Exercise 1

Watch the movie “Footprints in the snow”. Link to the movie

Think about the following questions:

1)        How does the documentary portray the communist regime? What does it say about it?

2)       The documentary says that the Church was the communists’ greatest enemy. Why do you think they say that?

3)       Why did the regime object to religious literature?

4)       How did they smuggle literature? What was the system like?

5)       How does Borovský describe his years in prison for smuggling literature?

6)       John Paul II said that what you are doing is very important. Why did he say that?

7)       What is the significance of smuggling literature?

8)       What is the difference between external and internal freedom?

9)       Which freedom is more important? Why?

10)      What did they do to be internally free?

11)       How did the people in the film define freedom today?

Exercise 2

Read the story of Tomáš Konc (Attachment 1).  

Recordings available in Slovak

Answer the questions:

  • What was his motivation to smuggle literature?
  • How many times did they have to go to get the mentioned weight across the border?
  • Would you be willing to undertake such risks?

Exercise 3

Create a poster (best size is on a flipchart paper) about the life of a smuggler. Focus on these points:

Calling & Conviction

Key Focus: Why he chose this dangerous path

Secret Mission: Smuggling Literature

Key Focus: How and why religious books were smuggled

Arrest, Prison & Repression

Key Focus: What happened/would happen if he was caught

Faith, Forgiveness & Legacy

Key Focus: His life after imprisonment and message

Extra Section: “Map of Books & His Life”

Key Focus: With a string “trace“ his life on a map.

Excercise 4

Find out where the books depicted below were originaly published and based on this map, find out what was the „route“ these books had to go through.

Attachments

The story of Tomáš Konc
Braňo Borovský and his friends were imprisoned for carrying Bibles in their backpacks across the mountains. In the 1980s, their group managed to bring 7 tons of books into Czechoslovakia this way.
Source: Stopy v snehu, director Slavomír Zrebný, 2015