ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...

throughout the country were executed as well. The Germans targeted public figures and
those suspected of being Czech nationalists. My grandfather, as a representative of the
town government, and his brother who had been a military officer in the Czech army,
were arrested within days of Heydrich’s death. They were executed by firing squad on
June 10, 1942. About 180 other people from Tabor were also executed over the course of
the next few weeks. My mother was 17 years old at the time and learned of her father’s
and uncle’s execution through the newspapers. It was a defining experience for the rest of
her life.
Q: Would you talk a little more about the town of Tabor and how far back it goes. Where
did the town fit into Bohemian history? I don't know much about that area.
PERINA: Well, the name Tabor comes from Mount Tabor, which is referred to in the
Bible. The town was founded by the Hussites in the early 1400’s. The Hussite movement
was really a type of religious uprising by followers of Jan Hus who was a precursor of
Luther in criticism of Church corruption. He was invited to meet with representatives of
the Pope at the Council of Constance in 1415. Though guaranteed safe passage, he was in
fact arrested and burned at the stake as a heretic. This sparked other social and ethnic
tensions of the declining feudal order and led to a kind of peasant uprising against the
Church and the establishment. The rebellion gained momentum and led to what is known
as the Hussite Wars. All of this was, of course, more complex than I am making it sound
here. The most famous leader of the Hussites was a fellow named Jan Zizka, and it was
his followers who established this town of Tabor. He was a brilliant military commander
who defeated Papal armies across Bohemia despite eventually losing both eyes in battle.
Tabor is very identified with this history and with Jan Zizka, whose statue is on the main
square.
My mother’s side of the family moved there from the Pilsen region after World War I.
My father’s side of the family, as far as I know, had been in Tabor much further back.
Q: Sudetenland or not?
PERINA: No. It was outside the Sudetenland. It was part of Bohemia and then it became
part of the Bohemian Protectorate established by the Germans.
Q: Given the Hussite history, was this a Protestant area? What was your family?
PERINA: Following the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620 when the Hapsburgs
defeated the Bohemian forces, there was a counter- Reformation and most of the country
was re-Catholicized. So most Czechs are Catholic but not very good Catholics. The
Church does not have the standing that it does in Poland, for example. This applies to my
family. We were technically Catholic but not practicing Catholics or particularly devout.
Q: What about the education of both your mother and father?
PERINA: My father was raised to inherit the family lumber business as was the custom
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