People who speak out against a regime are targeted. We think of dictatorships – like North Korea – but a democratic society can face the wrath of an angry administration. Under communist rule, Czechoslovakia was brual with the resistance. This article describes Czech resistance fighter Milada Horáková and her bravery.
Background
Milada Horáková nee Králová was born in Prague on 25 December 1901 in Prague, Austria-Hungary1 2 3. In 1918 she took part in anti-war protests and was expelled from school for this3 4. After the war, the Czechs’ demand for self-governance led to Czechoslovakia. Slavic people within Austria-Hungary had long argued in favour of greater autonomy.
The Archduke Franz-Ferdinand used to live close to Prague and he was sympathetic to this argument, but his advisers in Vienna were not. It is ironic that the death of the man who could have helped the Slavs caused World War I and the independence of Slavic countries.
Learn more about the Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s life and his home at Konopiště castle in my article about him.
Horáková finished her education in her brand-new country and read law at Prague’s Charles University, graduating in 19261 3 5 . Between 1927 and 1940 she worked for Prague’s social welfare department3 5. Her main interests were social justice and equality for women1 3.
World War II
During the German occupation she joined the resistance1 5. Reich protector Reinhard Heydrich was brutal in suppressing resistance in Bohemia. The most famous story about Czech resistance is Operation Anthropoid which was made into a film a few years’ ago. The authorities arrested Horáková and her husband on 2 August 19401 3 6 and tortured at the Czech concentration camp of Terezin1 7, 60 km north west of Prague.
In the summer of 1944 she appeared in a court in Dresden and sentenced to 8 years in prison1 6, even though the prosecution demanded the death penalty3. Advancing US forces freed her in April 1945 and she returned home3 6.
Post-war Czechoslovakia
By 1945 Horáková had seen two instances of German aggression and the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. She knew first-hand about resistance and understood why this was important. As information about the true nature of concentration camps came to light, she must have counted her blessings to be alive.
Back in Prague she continued her work on women’s rights1 3. She also took an interest in preserving Czechoslovakia’s democratic institutions. In 1946 she won a seat in Parliament6 8. In 1948 Czech Communists organised a coup d’etat and took over the country. She resigned her seat in protest on 10 March 19481 6 and continued her political work8.
Other Czechs who feared the Communists fled the country but she was one of the few to remain1 3 and fight to improve her country. On 27 September 1949, the authorities arrested her at her office in Masná street, Prague, charging her with leading a plot to “[organise] the restoration of capitalism in the service of Western imperialists”1 6 7.
Her husband managed to avoided arrest and fled the country1 7. Her 15-year old daughter, Jana, went to live with her aunt7.
Trial and detention
Horáková and her alleged co-conspirators suffered physical and psychological torture. They were in the hands of the Czechoslovakian communist secret police force, the StB, at the main prison in Pankrac, south of Prague’s city centre8 9. The StB accused Horáková of espionage for the USA, UK, France and Yugoslavia8.
This was not long after the StB tortured Father Toufar.
On 31 May 1950 her trial started1 6. The Communists planned this as a show trial of 12 co-conspirators8. They wanted to use this to scare other potential opponents. Soviet Union advisers worked on the trial3 10 and a public campaign advertised the matter far and wide.
The authorities handed out tickets for the trial in factories, offices and even schools10. They bussed in workers to witness what happens to anyone who contradicts the regime10. A propaganda campaign even encouraged 6 000 primary school children to sign a petition calling for the death penalty1 7 10.
The trial lasted nine days1 with the prosecution revealing recordings of alleged confessions of guilt.
Sentencing
The court sentenced Horáková and 3 others to death on 8 June 19501 6 7 10. She was the only woman executed in a political trial1 10. Personalities in the West petitioned the Czechoslovakian government for her life. The authorities ignored messages from the likes of Churchill, Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt1 8.
Less than 3 weeks after sentencing she was hanged a few minutes before 06:301 on 27 June 1950, aged 481. Her last words were, “I have lost this fight but I leave with honour. I love this country, I love this nation, strive for their well being. I depart without rancour towards you. I wish you, I wish you … “
The last woman Czechoslovakia executed was Olga Hepnarová. She too was hanged at Pankrac prison in 1975. You can learn about her terrorist attack in Prague in my article about her.
Archival reports claim her death was cruel; she died after hanging for 14 minutes1. They cremated her at the Strašnice Crematorium but her ashes were never returned to her family. To this day, her daughter does not know where her remains are3 7. The letters Horáková wrote to her family were not delivered to them until 19907.
Aftermath
During the reforms of the Prague Spring in 1968, the verdict was overturned3 6. This was short-lived with the Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia6. It was only during the Velvet Revolution in 1990 that her reputation was rehabilitated6 7.
In 1990 Prague’s Holešovice district renamed a major thoroughfare in her honour9. It is a few steps from my office and I often walk through it.
As coincidence has it Olga Hepnarová’s terrorist attack took place on this street.
In 1991 she was posthumously decorated by the Czech Republic6 7.
The Czech authorities chased the people who dreamt up this show trial. On 11 September 2008, the sole surviving member of the prosecutorial team, Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, received her sentence11. At the age of 86, a court condemned her to 8 years in prison for judicial murder11. She was released 2 years later because of her ill-health and age11. She died on 15 January 201511.
- The Communists hung Milada Horáková after a fabricated process; Jiří Štefek; 2018-06-27; (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
- HORÁKOVÁ, MILADA, ROZ. KRÁLOVÁ (25. 1. 1901 PRAGUE – 27. 6. 1950 PRAGUE PANKRÁC); (Retrieved 2019-08-01) (Article in Czech) [↩]
- JUDr. Horáková; Valka.cz; 2010-07-03; (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
- HORÁKOVÁ, MILADA, ROZ. KRÁLOVÁ (25. 1. 1901 PRAGUE – 27. 6. 1950 PRAGUE PANKRÁC); (Retrieved 2019-08-01) (Article in Czech) [↩]
- HORÁKOVÁ, MILADA, ROZ. KRÁLOVÁ (25. 1. 1901 PRAGUE – 27. 6. 1950 PRAGUE PANKRÁC); (Retrieved 2019-08-01) (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩]
- HORÁKOVÁ, MILADA, ROZ. KRÁLOVÁ (25. 1. 1901 PRAGUE – 27. 6. 1950 PRAGUE PANKRÁC); (Retrieved 2019-08-01) (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
- Communists murdered mother, she did not see her father for 17 years; Lidovky.cz; 2015-11-19; (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
- Milada Horáková; Radio.CZ; (Retrieved 2019-08-07) (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
- HORAKOVA; Nick Carey; Radio Praha; 2000-06-07[↩][↩]
- Information from the Museum of Communism, Prague; (As witnessed by the author); 2019-08-01[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
- Eight years in prison for judicial murder from 1950; Aktualne.cz; 2007-11-02; (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩][↩]