Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

The whole trial was effected by communist propaganda. In factories, offices, and even schools
where people got tickets to enter the courtroom, working people were taken there by buses. 14
The trial was extraordinary also for its public acceptance. After the first three days the court
was swamped with appeals from factories, offices, and towns. All of them demanded cruel
punishment and most of them for the death penalty. Similar appeals had been even voted on
by pupils at some primary schools. The whole thing went so far that the accused peoples’ kids
were forced to disown their own parents 15 .
Although the process was prepared in detail, its continuance sometimes got out of the hands
of organizers and the accused worked to defend themselves at court, trying to disprove some
accusations. The whole trial lasted for nine days. Each day, after the court was over, people
from the secret police were meeting members of government, evaluating the run of the day.
The whole process ended with 4 death penalties and none of the protests from abroad helped
avert the executions. 16
Another group of people who often got high sentences were clergy and catholic intellectuals.
The Catholic Church was gradually becoming an object for persecution since the spring of 1949.
In December 1949, an alleged miracle happened in a small village named Čihošť in Eastern Bohemia.
During the mass, given by priest Josef Toufar, a half-meter-long cross (19 inches), placed
on the great altar, moved a couple times from side to side. This event was recorded in the history
of the country as the “Čihošť miracle.“ The secret police locked up pastor Toufar in January
1950. During the process they started with him, he was supposed to “confess” that he staged the
cross’s movement. He was tortured and as a result of the torture he died on February 25, 1950.
Right after this event, another process started that consisted of members of male monastic
orders. Among the representatives was the Abbot of Želiva Monastery – Vít Tajovský. On April
4, 1950 the state court had a trial with ten men accused of disrupting the state. Final sentences
ranged from 2 years of imprisonment to life. National Defense Corps and peoples’ militias unexpectedly
occupied male monasteries at night from April 13 to 14, 1950. This campaign was
known as “Action K.” 219 religious houses were liquidated and 2376 monks jailed. A similar
destiny was then waiting for the nuns of the country.
The universities and colleges, where future Czechoslovakian intelligence was growing-up, were
not left out from pursuit either. On March 4, 1948 a meeting of teachers and professors was held
at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy at Charles University. So-called “reactive” teachers and students
were suspended. The only person who stood up against that decision was the art historian
professor Růžena Vacková. 17 She paid for her courage and ended up in prison for fifteen years.
14 This “theater” with monster processes is remembered also by Josef Čech, “Here in Pardubice they ran the monster processes
in the Grand hotel. That does not exist any more, but it was the biggest hall in the town for 400 or 500 people. They were
giving us tickets to that. People used to go to watch the processes and they were so fanatic that they would really see criminals
in those victims. There were for example businessmen who just hid their fabrics and were later detected as “fat cats”
who wanted to earn during a crisis. They paid for the fabric and they were just saving it for a better moment to sell it!”
15 The stories of children whose parents were arrested can be found at http://www.enemysdaughters.com/
16 Many smaller processes started all over the country after this one. In 35 processes 639 people were sentenced, 10 people
to the death penalty and 48 were sentenced to life.
17 Růžena Vacková (1901 – 1982) – a professor of classical archeology, the estetician and kunsthistorician. She studied archeology
at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. During WWII she participated in illegal activities. In 1947
she was named an adjuct professor of the university. In February 1948 she was the only professor taking part in the anti-
Communism demonstrations of students, in the first term of the academic year 1950 – 51 she could not teach, February
22, 1952 she was arrested and sentenced to 22 years in prison. She was released in spring 1967 and in 1969 she was fully
rehabilitated, in 1971 she was derehabilitated. In January 1977 she was one of the first to sign the statement of Charter
77. October 28, 1992 she was posthumously honoured with the Decoration of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.
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