Retribuce

Diskuse

Part I - Coping with the wartime past in the period up to the issuance of the retributive decrees


I have been working on the issue of retributions and prosecution of war criminals in our country for several years and therefore I present my overview of the most famous cases. I would be grateful for any additional information.


8.5.1945 - Former SdP leader Konrad Henlein (born 6.5.1898) was arrested in Loket and taken to Pilsen, where he committed suicide on 10.5.


9.5.1945 - Early in the morning the Reich Minister Karl Hermann Frank fled Prague. However, his journey did not last long. A few hours later he was recognized when passing through Rokycany and arrested together with his wife Karla and children Edda, Wolfdieter and Holl and soon transferred to the prison in Pilsen. Karola Franková was later handed over to the NKVD and taken to the USSR at the end of May. She returned to Germany after eleven years of imprisonment and it took her another four years to find her three lost children.


10.5.1945 - In the town of Trnávka, Franz Hodina, the local mayor and pre-war NS deputy for the SdP, was lynched by a mob and killed on the spot.
- In Prague, one of the most powerful men of Czech cinema, the successful actor, director and producer Jan Sviták, was lynched and eventually shot by a mob. (After World War I, he began acting and later became a film director, producer and then technical director of the Foja Film Studios in Prague-Radlice. In addition, he was in charge of the film club, which was located in Lucerna and where representatives of Czech culture and especially Czech cinema met. The German circles used the film club to make various contacts and arrange many deals, but above all it was a place where they maintained contacts with Czech filmmakers. In addition to the film club, Sviták also ran the film headquarters, where decisions about new scripts and the casting of actors for individual roles were made. Although he did not turn anyone in during the war, and on the contrary tried to help people, on the night of 9-10 May he was dragged from his apartment by members of the Revolutionary Guards. Sviták was very well informed about Czech Gestapo confederates among the cultural workers and it is even reported that he kept a notebook where he wrote down how various people came to him during the war to denounce him. Therefore, it is probably no coincidence that the group of about twelve guardsmen who came to Svitak's apartment were brought there by Svitak's deputy in the film office. It was he who was said to have been most interested in the documents Sviták had at home. The guards dragged Sviták to Bartolomějská Street, where they interrogated him. They wouldn't even let him make a phone call. In the morning, they handed him over to the frenzied crowd, who literally dragged him down Národní třída to the church in his underwear. They kicked him, they beat him, umbrella wires tore his face. At St. Martin's Church, the lynching reached its climax. Someone brought in a Soviet soldier, who ended his life with a short burst from a machine gun.


11.5.1945 - In Cimelice near Písek, the commander of the SS troops in the Protectorate, Count General Karl Friedrich von Pückler - Burghaus, committed suicide.


12.5.1945 - In Prague, Othmar Kallina, a pre-war MP for the DNP, committed suicide for fear of arrest.
- In Brno, President Edvard Beneš declared that the German nation "has ceased to be human at all in this war, has ceased to be humanly bearable and appears to us only as one great human monster." He finally said: "We have said to ourselves that the German problem in the republic must be definitely liquidated..." On 19 May, an article by the president's aide Prokop Drtina entitled "We cannot live with the Germans in one state" was published in Svobodny slovo, where it was said, among other things: "...what is, and what must be, the first task in establishing a new life: to cleanse the Republic entirely and completely of Germans." And further: "I judge that in our new Republic no more of German should be allowed to be spoken than these three words: Heim ins Reich! But in order to achieve this goal, we must begin the expulsion of the Germans from our lands at once, immediately, by all means, before nothing we must pause and hesitate... Every one of us must help in the cleansing of the fatherland..." (Prokop Drtina, Czechoslovakia, My Destiny, Volume 2, Prague 1991, pp. 63-64) These and similar speeches provoked a "savage" expulsion of the Germans, which was given a legal framework only after the Potsdam meeting of the Great Powers. (Strong words about the settlement with the Germans were already spoken during the war: Edvard Beneš's radio speech of 27 October 1943: "In our country the end of the war will be written in blood. The Germans will be repaid mercilessly and many times over for everything they have committed in our country since 1938. The whole nation will take part in this struggle. There will be no Czech who will not take part in this task and no patriot who will not exact retribution for all that the nation has had to endure." (Central European Observer, XX, Nr. 22/1943). Edvard Beneš in the Council of State on February 3, 1944: "The coup must be violent, it must be a violent showdown between the people and the Germans... a bloody, merciless struggle." (Einheit, 4/1944). Gen. "When our day comes, the whole nation will return to the old Hussite cry, "Cut them, beat them, spare none." Everyone must get a suitable weapon to hit the Germans. If not a rifle, then something else that will cut, stab or hit." (News Chronicle, November 4, 1944). In all, 3 million Germans were removed from Czechoslovakia and 2,964,000 hectares of land were confiscated. During the savage removal, 25,000 Germans lost their lives. And what the expulsion looked like: "I saw a large number of these people, it is almost half a million, literally starving to death on the roads. I saw children and infants lying dead in the ditches, victims of famine or epidemics whose arms and legs were no stronger than a man's thumb. Evacuees were scavenging from Russian field kitchens, which were often already in decay, to satisfy their insane hunger." When the removal was halted in the wake of the Potsdam Conference, the Czechoslovak government began to make life even more unbearable for the Germans. "Women and their children, including infants, were forced into the factory where they slept on the concrete floor and slowly died from lack of food. The men were taken to work under armed guard..." It is appropriate to recall the worst excesses in the removal of the Germans:


The Brno Death March - From the decree of the National Committee for Greater Brno of 30 May 1945: "The Provincial National Committee in Brno has ordered the following by its resolution of 29 May 1945 by decree of the same date No. 78/1945: The Germans residing in the district of the city of Brno, namely all women and children, as well as men under 14 years of age and over sixty years of age and men incapable of work, shall be removed from the city. These persons may take with them whatever they can carry, but not jewels and deposit books. The other Germans - men - shall be concentrated on the work of cleaning up and repairing the damage in the city of Brno and shall be marked with a capital N. After the work is done, these Germans shall also be removed from Brno." The signal for the "Brno march" was the aforementioned speech of President Edvard Beneš at the Brno town hall. The humiliation of women and children, the plundering of their property and the murders were often carried out by former collaborators. They were raped, beaten, tortured, Germans were not allowed to ride the trams, had to wear the N mark, were not given any ration cards except bread rolls and were not allowed to speak German. According to many testimonies, the Russians treated the Germans much more humanely and with more understanding than the Czechs, but unfortunately they also raped immature girls. 6000 Germans were herded into a railway tunnel north of Brno. What happened to the starving people in the dark tunnel for five days and five nights defies description. The establishment of the concentration camps was obviously intended to make the Germans eventually accept the removal as a kind of mercy. The interned Germans slept without blankets on the bare ground in the open air, were given inadequate food, so that many lost 20 to 30 kg in weight, were plagued by disease during hard labour, were robbed, sanitary and medical care was inadequate, the guards, mostly young people, acted with extreme cruelty, torture, burning, murder and rape were the order of the day. In the Kounic dormitories, where the Gestapo had its torture chambers during the war, atrocities and crimes against humanity continued long after the war. However, the death march itself was no spontaneous act of righteous vengeance. One of the victims recalls, "The screaming guards chased us with rubber truncheons. Laughing and spitting crowds milled along the street. People tried to tear off our clothes, picking up everything we were no longer able to carry any further." Another memory: "When it was light, they drove us out into the street. The death march of thousands of German women, children and old people from Brno towards the Austrian border began. Many fell from exhaustion into the ditches, where they received a blow of mercy." The escorting guards, often immature adolescents, kept inventing new torments. "Kiss my gun, you damned German swine!" they shouted at one old man. He had to say three times that he was a swine, kissing the barrel of the pistol, which they then "smashed into his skull until blood spurted." More and more people were falling down from exhaustion, first the sick and the old, later pregnant women and children. Mothers who stayed with their lying children were killed by a shot in the back of the head. "The most horrible thing I saw: A young woman lying in a meadow. She had just given birth. She was wailing and wailing, but she and the newborn were so long attacked with blows and kicks that they were both left lying lifeless." Typhus, dysentery, constant rape, screams of the tortured, piles of the dead, suicides, humiliation that defies description, mass graves along the roadside, torture from thirst and hunger. Just before the Austrian border, the Germans were robbed for the last time of the pitiful remains of their possessions and left to their own fate. Apart from President Beneš and the government, the main culprits of the whole operation were the security officer of the Provincial National Committee, Karel Smítal, and above all Bedřich Pokorný, the SNB commander for Moravia, a former captain in the Czechoslovak army, after the occupation a collaborator with the Sicherheitsdienst in Brno, who, together with his wife, who was posing as a German, lived in an apartment taken from Jews during the war, and was carefully sought out by the NKVD for his dirty work. The exact number of victims will probably never be known, but estimates range from 8 to 10 thousand dead, with a total of 30,000 Germans expelled from Brno alone.


Prague - In May 1945, several dozen local Germans were concentrated in the German Real Gymnasium at 22 Stepanska Street in Prague. When the Uprising broke out, most of them were interned as members of the enemy nation and after the end of the war they waited to see what their fate would be. On the afternoon of May 10, a group of armed men entered the school building and selected six of the youngest and strongest. "They led us to Wenceslas Square," one recalled. "It was crowded with a raging mob, so they had to create an alley for us first. I never thought what a grin a human face could turn into as they grabbed at us with gnashing teeth, spat at us and shouted. With all their might and guns drawn, the guards had to protect us from these creatures, I cannot say humans. So we reached the corner of Vodičkova Street and saw our task: on a large billboard there were three naked corpses hanging by their feet, doused in petrol and burned. Faces disfigured beyond recognition, all teeth knocked out, mouths just a bloody hole. The fried skin was sticking to our hands, so we had to carry them to Štěpánská and drag them when we couldn't carry any more. When we laid the dead down, they made us kiss them on the mouth: 'They are your brothers, so kiss them!'` What was all the ugliness worth, life is kinder to man after all, so we pressed our clamped lips into the bloody pool that was to be a mouth. To this day I can still feel those icy heads in my hands." Testimony of Helena Burgner, 7.7.1946: "On 9.5. I was beaten in my own apartment by the caretaker and then taken without any luggage to remove barricades in the streets of Prague. My work group consisted of 20 women, led by a certain Professor Zelenka. When we left the house, Professor Zelenka handed us over to the crowd with the words: "Here I am leading you German swine." With the words "You German whore" we had to kneel down, then they cut off our hair with a bayonet. They took off our shoes and stockings, so we had to go barefoot. With every step and every movement we were beaten inhumanly with slats, rubber truncheons, etc. If a woman fell to the ground, they stepped on her, rolled her in excrement or threw stones at her until she died. I myself fainted several times and was then doused with water and had to continue working. When I really couldn't anymore, I got kicked in the left side of my body, which broke 2 ribs. During one fainting spell, a piece of flesh about 4 square centimetres in size was cut out of my foot. Such an ordeal lasted all afternoon. My group included women in high stages of pregnancy and nursing mothers who were treated exactly the same. One of these women had a miscarriage in 3 or 4 days. In the evening we returned home. My own children did not recognize me, so I was disfigured by the abuse. My face was covered with bloody scabs, my clothes were left in bloody rags, 2 women from our house committed suicide out of despair, one went mad. Our bodies were all blue and swollen. We all had open wounds on our heads. Since none of us could move, we were kept under guard for 3 weeks in a small apartment in our house. During that time they tortured us to the limit of our mental capacity. They threatened to take away our children and send us to Siberia. After 3 weeks we were taken to Hagibor camp. 1,200 people were housed in 4 barracks. All of them fell ill with dysentery from hunger, because the diet consisted of less than a quart of thin oat broth twice a day for the children, a quart of black coffee and one thin slice of bread each for the adults in the morning and evening, and water soup without any additives at noon. Toilets were only allowed to be used three times a day at a certain hour. Everyone was subject to the duty of work. Every evening the work parties returned to camp beaten. There was no medical treatment. The one German doctor who was locked up with us did what he could, but he had no medicines or bandages or the most primitive instruments such as thermometers, so that women who returned with gunshot wounds and other injuries were left practically untreated. There were epidemics of measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, etc., for which there were no remedies. One day we were driven out on appeal. We had to stand in the open air for 7 hours when a terrific hail and gale swept in, tearing the roof off two barracks. That same day at the station we were loaded onto open heavily damaged coal cars so tightly that we could hardly stand. We arrived in Cologne at 3 o'clock in the morning in the pouring rain. There we were put up in a ruined school. While marching from the station to this school, two women died of exhaustion. From the school we were taken the next day to the building of the Czech Red Cross. Every night the Czech Red Cross nurses let Soviet soldiers into the camp, pointing out the pretty women and girls, who were then raped in an inhuman way, often many times a night. The desperate cries for help of these women could be heard throughout the night. Many had their faces and noses bitten off in the morning, and lay listlessly without any help, as medical treatment was not even available in this camp. After a few days, 45 women, including one with 6 small children, were sent to a Czech farm to work. We stayed there for 3 and a half months until the last two women, including myself, collapsed from exhaustion. With meals of the same kind as in Hagibor, we had to do hard physical work, even on Sundays. The children also received the same diet as the adults, without a drop of milk, so that three out of every four died. All the children under the age of one died in the Prague camp. We were guarded by armed patrols while we worked. When my child got scarlet fever like many other children and I begged the driver on my knees to bring him a doctor, he replied, "The National Committee has ordered that the Germans will not get medical help." As I had contracted pleurisy as a result of my broken ribs, I was sent to Prague to be transported to the Reich. I was released for Christmas 1945 to Asha at the intervention of the British Embassy, where I worked as a secretary for 12 years."


Ústí nad Labem - On 30 July 1945, at 15:30, an explosion occurred in a sugar factory in nearby Krásné Březno, where unused munitions of various kinds were being concentrated. The detonation was enormous and caused great damage. A rumour immediately spread in the town that it was a sabotage caused by the local Germans. "I went into town immediately, I didn't put on my white armband, and that was my luck. The hunt for the Germans had begun," said Alois Ullmann, a Sudeten German Social Democrat and an eyewitness to the events, years later. People on the streets "were armed with all sorts of implements, such as slats from fences, billets, shovel handles, etc., which they had procured somewhere. They used them indiscriminately to beat to the point of collapse those who spoke German or wore armbands... In the vicinity of the Market Square and the railway station, the wildest gangs were on the rampage. They threw women with baby carriages into the Elbe and they became targets for the soldiers who shot at them until they didn't float away. They also threw Germans into the water reservoir in the Market Square, and as soon as they surfaced, they pushed them under the surface with sticks. It was not until about 5 p.m. that a few Russian officers appeared and tried to clear the streets, while some Czechs in uniform helped them. A curfew was then issued in Czech by a silencer."


Teplice - The literary historian Václav Černý left his testimony about the local massacre. When he returned to his birthplace in eastern Bohemia in the summer of 1945, he learned "what had happened at the other end of his native horizon, in Teplice-Weckersdorf on the uppermost Metuji River. After Munich, all of our people, both the old and the new, republican ones, left the countryside of Broumov, adjacent to the Czech Náchod region, for the interior. And in May 1945 they came back in droves and made "order", they simply expelled all Germans from Teplice, even before the legal and state regulations on expulsion were issued! And in time, the crowd of expelled Germans from the border returned, nowhere they were wanted or accepted without accompanying documents. But in Teplice they had already been written off, their houses occupied, their possessions divided, and local ladies were already walking around in their furs. And so there was no choice but to restore "order" a second time. They took the Germans to the rocks and there they shot them in the forest and buried them. In time, the foreign German relatives began to look for the missing, entrusted the search to the International Red Cross, the authorities of the victorious powers turned to Prague, and it came to the dug edge of the murder shaft: the girl on top of the pile of corpses still clutched her death-stiffened hands in it, and the twist of her body betrayed that she had died kneeling in a plea for mercy..."


Postoloprty - Around two thousand Germans died in the largest post-war massacre of Germans in Postoloprty in the Lounsko region in June 1945, the exact numbers are unknown. The Germans were mostly shot in the back of the head and buried in mass graves. Only the exhumation a year later lasted five days. No one has been punished for this to this day. The most tragic mass murder of the post-war period was indeed investigated by a parliamentary commission in 1947, but some high officials in pre-February Czechoslovakia were convinced that these acts should be covered up and the evidence destroyed. Klement Gottwald wrote to the commission that it was not in the state's interest to investigate the incident too much, and the ministers of the interior and defence, Václav Nosek and Ludvík Svoboda, even suggested that the evidence of the massacres of Germans be destroyed and that journalists be forbidden to write about these matters.


Jihlava - Franz Kvapil's testimony from September 2, 1946. The following night, about 1,200 Germans committed suicide. By Christmas there were about 2,000 dead. On 24 and 25 May, within 20 minutes, the partisans drove the German population out of their apartments and locked them up in the camps Helenenthal and Altenberg. These camps were officially called 'concentration camps'. 3 700 people were placed in Helenenthal and 3 000 in Altenberg. Neither drinking water nor drinking water was adequately provided. There were no toilet or washing facilities. In the first eight days we were not given anything to eat. Later there was only thin soup and 100 grams of bread a day. The children were given a quarter of a litre of milk after the first eight days. Every day several elderly people and small children were dying. On 8 June the inhabitants of Helenenthal were robbed of everything and the next day they were led on foot 33 km through Telč to Stonarovo. We were driven by whips. The old people, who had collapsed, were carried on a wagon. This march cost 350 lives due to exhaustion and hunger. In Stonarovo, 3,500 people were crammed into a camp designed for 250 people. Most of them had to camp outside despite the rain. On the second day, families were divided into 5 different camps, with men, women and children separated. There were no meals for eight days. Then the usual soups. Once in the women's camp, two women were killed and one seriously wounded by a single shot. The punishment of beatings was the order of the day for both men and women. There was even a special cell for this. The management sold the camp inhabitants to Czech peasants as labourers. In August, conditions improved, but by Christmas about 500 prisoners had died in Stonarovo. In January, the camp was dissolved. I myself was placed in pre-trial detention on 9 January 1946 and released on 7 August 1946."


13.5.1945 - State President Emil Hácha was arrested in Lány by government decision and placed in the prison hospital at Pankrác. He was already in a condition that he could not walk, he did not perceive his surroundings, he did not speak. He was placed in cell No. 4 and given prison number 3844. "...he was in a cell full of lice, fleas and bedbugs. Occasionally the guards would take him out into the corridor and urinate on him from the galleries....he had to sleep on straw and was not given any food digestible for a person of his condition...He was officially provided only with food, the consumption of which was out of the question for him, such as hard bread." He was also unlawfully denied visitors. On June 25, he presented with bilateral pneumonia following a previous bout of tonsillitis. The agony lasted 36 hours. On 27 June at 8.50 p.m. Emil Hácha died. On 30 June he was buried secretly and with the assistance of the police in the Vinohrady cemetery. His name could not be placed on the grave by order of the Minister of the Interior, Václav Nosek.
- In connection with the post-war arrests, 1,215 internment camps and 846 labour camps were established in Czechoslovakia. For example, the interpellation of the MP Ota Hora to the Minister of the Interior, Václav Nosek, dated 29 May 1947, which describes the situation in the Kolín region, shows how things were in such camps. Kárník first set up a so-called death column of 40 internees, which was later expanded to 70 people. The detainees were marked with a red circle on a white background 18 cm in diameter. The mark of shame had to be worn on the chest and back. The selection for the death column was made at random, and all the interrogated from Cologne were especially designated for it. They were assigned the most difficult and dangerous work, and Kárnik declared on every occasion that they were destined for gradual liquidation. The interrogatees tasted many punishments: blows with fists and truncheons, kicks and the knocking out of teeth were common sights, which were repeated daily. Internees were sentenced to 25 to 50 blows with a round rubber cable with a wire up to 1 cm thick inside. The guards took turns in the beatings. After such punishment, the exercise continued to "stir the blood". It was 50 to 100 squats, sometimes more. Other exercises followed, until the internees passed out. In order to resurrect themselves, the internees were put under a cold shower, during which they had to raise their heads and sing while water flowed from the shower into their mouths. They were also often beaten or placed in front of a tub filled with water and knocked into the tub with blows. Orders to squat across a corridor 100 metres long were also a common sight. On the night of June 6-7, 1945, Karnik, his companions and a woman came from Cologne. He personally drove all the secured Czechs in their underwear before midnight into the courtyard, which was full of mud and puddles after the rain. The half-hour warm-up consisted of short trotting, punctuated by commands to "Get down!" The guards trampled on the hands and heads of the interrogated lying in the mud, while Karnik made a speech, recalling in the mind to-day something like this: 'You will all die or be hanged here, and if some of you manage to slip away in court, Karnik will follow you like a shadow until he has killed you, or at least put out your eyes. You were all Nazi henchmen, and now we're going to show you what Nazism looks like." And then it started: First, the guards had to perform the "Paradeschritt" and whoever didn't raise his legs high enough was beaten. After this solemn march, the internees entered the clamped unit, and then followed a questioning by Karnik as to who was innocent in the camp. Those who did not understand this joke of Kárnik's, and stepped out of line, received 15 to 25 blows with a carbine on the back of the body. Those who had already been broken on that part of the body from earlier received 10 to 15 blows on the feet. Others who pleaded not guilty were beaten twice. This was followed by more falling to the ground, "barrel rolling" and other exercises. To complete the impression for the terrified population, who could see into the illuminated camp from the houses opposite, more flares were fired throughout the torture. As these scenes aroused the indignation of the inhabitants of the surrounding houses, the Kárnik ordered that further physical torture be carried out in the corridor of the barracks. A so-called "death run" was set up from the guards. A bench was built at the beginning of the corridor, the internees were placed on it and given 15 blows. In doing so, they had to count the blows themselves, and when it happened that one of them stopped counting because of great pain, the beatings were started again until everyone had actually counted out his 15 blows. Then these ransomed men had to run through the alley of death, being beaten with a club, or with the hand, or by kicking, by the new guards standing on either side, no matter where the blow fell. The column of the heaviest criminals - according to Kárnik, of course - who worked in the brickyard of the Bůzek company in Kolín, were ordered to produce 500 hand bricks per day per interrogated person. If this number was not met on just one day, they were all punished with 25 lashes and drilled until they passed out. Most internees vomited while rolling barrels against the plant. At the end of July 1945, a prisoner who had escaped from the camp in Jihlava was caught in Kolín. He was a man of tall stature, stocky and in good health. When he was brought to the camp, he was sentenced to 50 lashes by Kárnik for having escaped from the camp. The payoff was in the courtyard at roll call. After about the sixth blow he threw off the guards who held him, and was therefore knocked down and dragged to the office. There he was beaten so that he remained unconscious, and in his underwear, without underpants, was hung by his bound hands on a post of the high fence by the gate. He hung thus from about eight o'clock in the evening until four o'clock in the morning. Throughout the night there was a very violent storm and a heavy downpour. On waking he was lying on a stretcher in the corridor and died shortly afterwards. The last great torture carried out by Kárnik was on the night of 23-24 September 1945. The internees called this night the Night of St. Bartholomew. After 11 o'clock in the evening, Kárnik ran through the quarters shouting "alles heraus", and drove everyone out into the corridor to examine their washed feet. There were quite a few who had to go to the yard for exercise, while the others were allowed to return to the room thinking that they had already had a room. But they hadn't, for a new command came to enter the corridor in a huddled line along the wall. And then it began. First, Karnik's speech about the Xindi, the wretched dogs he must destroy, etc. After the speech, Karnik, with a bamboo cane fitted with a wire inside, went along the line, and everyone got two blows on the right cheek and two on the left. They were all bleeding. Then a new command, kneel facing the wall. Everyone got four blows to the head. This feat was accompanied by words from the barber: "This is not communism, this is democracy as Karnik imagines it." During this torture, Ales Osecky from Kolin had to play on the violin compositions by Fibich, Dvorak and others, as well as national songs. Osecký was also interned in the camp. Kárnik and Hála gave someone else a kick now and then, and then Hála dragged a seriously ill cab driver, Jan Strnad from Kolín, from the camp hospital. In the corridor of the barracks, in front of the other internees, Strnad received about 70 blows with a cane from Hala, and was so wounded that he was unrecognizable the next day. This violence lasted until 2:30 a.m., with the result that by 5 a.m. the four interned doctors had to treat over 100 broken heads. These 100 internees with broken heads, barely standing on their feet, had to start their journey to work in the morning at the Petroleum and Metallurgical Works. Soon afterwards, Kárník, Hála, Vilím and Mikes were arrested and imprisoned in the prison of the regional court in Kutná Hora. After about six weeks, however, they were released. They both went to the borderlands. Even worse abuse was committed in the camp in Radboř near Kolín. For example, František Osecký, a merchant from Kolín, was beaten to death there a few hours after his arrival. His corpse was deliberately polluted and buried while singing mocking songs by the pond near Kořenice. During interrogations in the camp, the internees were stabbed, hung from trees by their legs and beaten. In total, 22 internees were tortured to death in the Cologne internment camp."
Shortly after liberation, tens of thousands of non-Communists suspected of collaboration with the Germans were arrested. They were inhumanly tortured and many died as a result of their imprisonment. The Soviet authorities also participated in the terror. One of their groups, based in the Jiřího z Poděbrad barracks in Prague, executed dozens of people on the nights after the liberation, including by burning. All these atrocities were legalised by Presidential Decree No. 137/1945 of 27 October 1945 and by Act No. 115/1946 Coll., according to which "an act which would constitute a judicial offence under the regulations in force is not criminal if it was committed between 30 September 1938 and 28 October 1945 because of the struggle to regain the freedom of the Czechs and Slovaks, or if it was an expression of a desire for just retribution for the acts of the occupiers or their helpers."


14.5.1945 - The Czech police arrested former Prime Minister Rudolf Beran, who had been free for only 8 days.


19.5.1945 - President Edvard Beneš issued Decree No. 5/1945 Coll., on the national administration of the property of Germans, Hungarians, traitors and collaborators and on the invalidity of certain property acts from the time of the occupation. The decree introduced the term "state-unreliable person", which included persons of German or Hungarian nationality and "persons who carried out activities directed against the sovereignty, independence, integrity, democratic-republican form of state, security and defence of the Czechoslovak Republic". The property of these persons was placed under national administration. This decree was then followed on 21 June by Presidential Decree No. 12/1945 Coll., on the confiscation and accelerated distribution of the agricultural property of Germans, Hungarians, as well as traitors and enemies of the Czech and Slovak nation.


27.5.1945 - Josef Šusta, historian and former Minister of Education and National Enlightenment, committed suicide in Prague, unable to bear the false accusation of collaboration.


30.5.1945 - Jaroslav Preiss, former chief director of Živnobanka, was arrested at his country residence in the village of Lavičky u Orlík. He was placed in Pankrác and had to be transferred to a prison hospital on 12 July because he became seriously ill as a result of harsh interrogations. He was released again on the direct order of the Minister of Justice Prokop Drtina on 26.4.1946 and died three days later. His entire property had already been stolen by that time.


12.6.1945 - The Czechoslovak government adopted a decision to resettle Germans from the Czech border area.


18.6.1945 - Not far from the Přerov railway station, soldiers of the 17th Infantry Regiment from Petržalka, under the command of Colonel Karol Pazúr, shot 265 Slovak Germans from Dobšiná who were returning home to Slovakia from where they had been evacuated by German soldiers shortly before the end of the war.
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2. part - dealing with the war a thing of the past in the period since the release of retributive decrees

Problem retribucí and prosecution of war criminals in the us I have several years and therefore submit to you my overview of those most famous cases. I will be grateful for any additional information.

19.6.1945 - President Edvard Beneš issued another of the important decrees - decree no. 16/1945 Coll., on the punishment of nazi criminals, traitors and their accomplices, and of the exceptional folk courts - the so-called big retribuční a decree, that in the head 1 defined by the facts of crimes against the state, against persons and against property, as well as the crime of whistle-blowing. At the same time fixed the amount of the penalties for these crimes - for intrigues against the republic, the death penalty was, for the threat to the republic, betraying state secrets or military treason to life imprisonment for whistle-blowing prison from five to ten years, while these penalties could be increased, should-if the crimes committed particularly severe consequences. For whistle-blowing could be handed down a death sentence, if resulted in the death of a person. In title 2 of this decree have been established the powers of the extraordinary people's courts, which should these crimes be judged. In Slovakia this decree didn't pay, here was taken already 15.5. government regulation on the punishment of fascist criminals, occupiers and traitors and also judicial adjustment was different. The same day issued the president decree on the National court. 27.10.1945 then came another decree on the punishment of certain offences against the national honour (the so-called littleretributiondecree). The effectiveness of the retributive decrees lasted until 4.5.1947. Chairman of the National court in Prague he was appointed Ferdinand Richter, whose attitude during the war, however, was disputed, and then found his letter from prison, Adolf Hitler, in which he begged for mercy, he was replaced by František Tomsou. The national prosecutor in Prague was Franz Tržický. The chairman of the MLS in Prague was Vladimir Kozak, prosecutor Jaroslav Drábek. The head of the retribučního department of the ministry of justice was dr. Zdeněk Marjanko. Chairman of the National court in Bratislava was the communist Igor Daxner. In addition to the most important processes, which are listed below, it should be noted still some other cases. Of the former members of the protectorate government were, in addition to the two large processes, tried: interior minister gen Josef the Hedgehog was found guilty but punishment was waived; the minister of education Jan Kapras was in April 1947 liberated, but after 10 days on the consequences of imprisonment he died; the minister of public works Dominic Fly was also freed as well as the minister of agriculture, count Nicholas Bubna from litice as well, or the minister of the economy Jaroslav Kratochvíl. From the former the command of the czechoslovak army was to be 11 generals accused of collaborating: Jan Syrový, Sergei Vojcechovský, the Lion Fled, Vladimir Klecanda, Karel Husárek, Václav Kuneš, Jaroslav Eminger, Frantisek Marvan, Jaroslav Červinka, Francis Cuckoo and Charles Walk. Executed was gen František Bartoš, even though it had demonstrable connections with the resistance and his guilt has not been proven, he died in prison of gen Alois Podhajský, from the government forces were serving life sentenced gen Jan Obručník and gen Václav Kuneš, 4 years gen Libor Winner and freed was the brig. gen Jaroslav Eminger. From the staff of the Office of the president of the republic was its head, Augustine Cinderella sentenced to 5 years and a political officer Josef Kliment (24.6.1901 – 4.10.1978, 1944 – 45 president of the Supreme administrative court) for life. Of the bosses of the National conviviality was Josef Heavenly liberated (again arrested he was right 25.2.1948 and 21.12.1948 sentenced to 12 years in prison, which he fully did), and Jan Fousek, Tomáš Krejčí were convicted, but the sentence was waived. Jan Fousek, however, shortly to become the victim of unconstitutionally renewed retribuce in 1948 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Of the functionaries of the Flag were executed by Josef Feature – Sower, Josef Burda and Jaroslav Čermák, Otakar Polívka he was sentenced to death in absentia, Henry Thun – Hohenstein was sentenced to life in prison, Vaclav Cyphelly for 20 years and Henry Streibl for two years. Of the leading Committee for the education of youth were sentenced Jan Svoboda, Eduard Chalupa, Karel Mihalíček, František Teuner and Josef Viktorn to life imprisonment, Charles Acorn for 25 years, George Mrazek for 10 years, Jaroslav Krigar at 6 years and Václav Krigar for 4 years. From the leadership of the NOÚZ were freed by its president Václav Stočes; and the central secretaries Arnošt Hais and František Kolář. From the Czech league against bolshevism were sentenced Anthony Fox for 10 years, Joseph Drachovský for 8 months and Karel Röhlich at 7 months. The general director belonging to the škoda factories in Pilsen, Adolf Vamberský (5.6.1888 – 23.6.1951) was sentenced to 3 years, industrialist and owner of the baťa's works in Zlín Jan Antonín Baťa (7.3.1898 – 24.8.1965 in Brazil) in absentia to 15 years in prison, director and member of the management board of Bata during the war Albrecht Miesbach was liberated. From the so-called activist journalists were executed editors Rudolf Novák (the Aryan fight), Antonín Jaromil Kožíšek (Midday leaf), Vladimir Krychtálek (Countryside), Charles Werner (the Czech word) and editor of radio - Cross, in absentia, was sentenced to death the editor of the Evening of the Czech word and the Presence of Emanuel Vajtauer (nar. 23.12.1892, as the agent of the british Intelligence Service, he managed to at the end of the war disappear to England), were further sentenced the chief editor of Popular newspaper in Brno, Leopold Zeman on 2 and a half years, the chief editor of the Rural Rudolf Halík (25.10.1881 – 27.10.1960) to 18 months (in the renewed retribuci after February 1948 he was sentenced to ten years in prison), the chief editor of the Rights of the people of the Vladimir the Fish for 10 years and chief editor of the National policy of Václav Crha for life. Of the artists was an actor Vlasta Burian 7.5.1947 sentenced to three months imprisonment and to a fine of 500 000 Crowns, actress Adina Almond (During the nazi occupation, tried to luck on stage. She insisted on leading roles, although with the stage experience. Unnecessarily made a lot of enemies. His influence but reached, that the occupiers re-opened the Theatre in Vinohrady. She did it mainly for myself, many of the actors, however, because it doesn't have to work in Germany. During the war she was Adina Almond on top of the fame. There was talk about her dealings with the Germans, even with The. H. Frank. After the liberation she was arrested, imprisoned and tried, even though she played only in a single German film. Her sentence sounded exactly the same number of days she spent in custody. Remained without money, all abandoned. During the occupation of the Almond married a failed painter Zdeněk Tůmu. He took his own life. In the theatre is close with Vladimir Šmeralem, and as he writes in his memories, he was the father of her child. In early labor she was born a dead girl. After the anabasis na Pankráci married a former member of the RAF Josef Kočvárka. Through marriage she gained a british passport and could, after February 1948, to legally evict) and Lída Baarová (In 30 years began to operate also in the German film company UFA, which became known as the european Hollywood. The main role in the film Barkarola, where she played alongside Gustav Fröhlicha, brought Lídu Baarovou among the european stars. Unfortunately for her however, her beauty was then noticed and a nazi leader Joseph Goebbels. Baarová became his mistress and Goebbels for her "lost your head". He wanted a divorce, he offered Hitler his resignation and wanted to Baarovou get married. Hitler, however, their marriage forbade and Lída Baarová had to from Germany to leave. The affair with Joseph Goebbels caused that Lída Baarová became undesirable not only in Germany, but later also in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The last film, which in the us was allowed to film was the Turbine of the director Otakar Vávra. The year 1941 went to Italy. After the allied landing in Italy, Lida Baarová returned to Prague. After the liberation came to the Americans, however, were arrested and deported to Prague, where she ended up in prison. Her mother died shortly thereafter of a heart attack, which got in the interrogation and sister, Zorka Janů, also a talented actress, she was fired from the theater, and shortly thereafter committed suicide. The very Lída Baarová was a prisoner for 16 months. After February 1948, with Lída Baarová married Jan Kopecký, a relative of the then communist minister of information Václav Kopecký and together with him went to Austria. Soon sailed to Argentina, where she managed to get the Italian visa, and after more than 4 years appeared again in Italy) and the conductor Václav Talich were after several months of imprisonment, freed. To three years in prison was sentenced the director Václav Binovec, a furious anti-semite and an agent of the SD, which had caused including the death of singer-songwriter Karl Hašlera (File Binovec Václav: the Protocol written on July 31. July 1945 in the Office of the State security with Miloš Havel: "If it's about link the arrest of Charles Hašlera by the gestapo with the name of Václav Binovce, I can confirm that I own the mouth Hašlerových heard that Binovec turned him in, respectively, that it believes. This statement was made by Karel Hašler, when he was imprisoned by the gestapo Pankrác prison."). Exempted were, for example, former prime minister Jan Malypetr, a former defense minister Franz Machník, the former mayor of Kooperativa Ferdinand Klindera, former director of the Mining and metallurgical society of Otakar Kruliš – Randa, the former section chief of the foreign ministry Hubert Masařík, the former envoy, and during the war the chairman of the board of Zbrojovka Brno and Živnobanky Vojtěch Greasy, the former rector of the UK Karel Domin or ambassador Ferdinand Veverka. Before the court hearing, he committed suicide of collaborating illegally you are guilty of exercising the historian Josef Susta, in prison, before the process died a former member Franz Schwarz. The national court considered a total of 36 cases against 80 persons in the other three cases, acting as a court of honor. 65 persons were convicted, 15 exempt. Was handed down a total of 18 death sentences (in three cases it was given a reprieve) and 8 life. 5 people it was meant to be in the absence of the, 4 persons were found guilty, but was waived from the punishment. The MLS has discussed a total of 37 982 cases, of which 21 342 persons were convicted, 741 for life and 713 to death. 9 132 persons were exempted. Slovakia was retribuce according to regulation SNR no. 33/1945 of 15.5.1945. The court system consisted of the National court, the district people's courts and local people's courts. In addition to the cases mentioned below were members of the governments of the doomed gene. Ferdinand Čatloš for 5 years, Mikuláš Pružinský for 6 years, Matúš Černák for 3 years, Gejza Fritz for 2 years, Štefan Tiso on 30 years, Aladár Kočiš for 6 years, Martin Sokol for 5 years, Jozef Sivak on 3 years, Alexander Mach for 27 years, Miloš Vančo for 2 years, Gejza Medrický for 7 years, Július Stano for 4 years and Ludevít Lednár to 4 years in prison. Cleansed, ministers were Peter Zaťko and Imrich Karvaš. The former chief of Hlinkových gard Karol Murgaš was sentenced to 15 years. The total was before the National court in Slovakia being sued 83 persons, was handed down 17 death sentences, 49 of punishments prison, 2 public reprimand, 5 persons were found guilty, but was dropped from the sentence and 10 people were exempt. Before the popular courts were sentenced 8 055 persons, 65 of them were sentenced to death. Different adjustment in the Czech lands and Slovakia apparently caused, that while according to the ideas of the external resistance should be under this decree to be judged alongside the occupiers, primarily the leaders of the fascist regime in Slovakia, the reality was different - a greater number of transgressions was on trial in the Czech lands.

21.6.1945 - President Edvard Beneš issued a decree no. 12/1945, Coll. on the confiscation and accelerated allocation of agricultural property of Germans, Hungarians as well as traitors and enemies of the Czech and Slovak nation. It has created the preconditions for the forthcoming land reform. On the basis of this decree was taken on 2 979 027 ha of land.

1.7.1945 - In the pankrác prison in Prague, he died in custody a former prague mayor Alois Říha. He was 70 years old when they had him on the Charles square to the jail, where there was no bed and where prostál and sat on the stool for 30 days, before he was ruthlessly beaten to death.

17.7.1945 - Decree of the president of the republic no 27/1945 Coll., on the unified management of internal settlement was legally supported by the displacement of the German population from the Czech border, ongoing since may, initially as the "wild expulsion". Another constitutional law, regulating the legal displacement of the German population from the Czech lands, was the constitutional decree of the president of the republic no. 33/1945 Coll. on the adjustment of the czechoslovak citizenship of persons of the nationality of the German and Hungarian from the 2.8. A decree on the unified management of internal settlement provides that its aim is to be the "restoration of all areas of the Czechoslovak republic, the original slavic element", which to be established the relevant settlement authorities based in Prague and Bratislava. The constitutional decree on the adjustment of the czechoslovak citizenship of persons of the nationality of the German and Hungarian issued by 2. August then said that those citizens of German or Hungarian nationality who have acquired German or Hungarian nationality, have lost their czechoslovak citizenship, derogation should be made for those persons who can demonstrate that neprovinily against the Czech or Slovak nation and remained loyal to the republic. The application of these persons to adopt the district national committees and the decision of the ministry of the interior. After the excesses of the "wild displacement" and the adoption of legal adjustments to the displacement of Germans and Hungarians from CZECHOSLOVAKIA then began the planned eviction, which took place between 1.1.1946 and 1.7.1947. According to the statistics, it was pushed back 2 423 000 Germans, of which 1 446 000 in the western zone.

2.8.1945 - Was issued the constitutional decree of the president of the republic no. 33/1945 Coll. on the adjustment of the czechoslovak citizenship of persons of the nationality of German and Hungarian. The decree became the basis for the expulsion of Germans and Hungarians from Czechoslovakia.

6.9.1945 - In Prague, was publicly executed a history professor at a German university and the deputy of the prague mayor Josef Pfitzner (born. 24.3.1901).

9.10.1945 - In Bratislava was executed colonel. Ján Šmigovský (nar. 2.5.1903), which for the SNP as the commander of the other crew moved to the side of the Germans and as the commander of the 1. infantry regiment of the Militia has significantly contributed to its failure.

18.10.1945 - Published decrees of the president of the republic no 122/1945 Coll., and no 123/1945 Coll., on the abolition of the German university in Prague and on the abolition of the German higher technical school in Prague and in Brno.

25.10.1945 - Was issued the decree of the president of the republic no. 108/1945 Coll., on the confiscation of enemy property and the Funds of national renewal.

27.10.1945 - President Edvard Beneš signed the so-called littleretributiondecree - decree on the punishment of certain offences against the national honour. According to this decree should be judged of you, who may have been guilty of collaboration with the occupiers, but their offences were not so large, that they might be judged according to the great retribučního decree. Citizens charges according to the "small decree" were not allowed to, inter alia, to vote in the parliamentary elections in may 1946. Quite a vague description of the facts caused that the "small decree" would eventually become the instrument of party policy and the fight between the parties, in which excelled, especially the communists. The validity of this retribučního bill is over 5. may 1947.

3.12.1945 - To Prague, arriving on a four-day official visit to the Hungarian minister of foreign affairs János Gyöngyösy, who here has discussed the complex issue of the fate of the Slovak and Hungarian minorities. Complicated negotiations, which began in Prague, was topped up to 27.2.1946 in Budapest, where an Agreement was signed between Czechoslovakia and Hungary concerning the exchange of population. Its essence was in the fact that instead of expulsion of the Hungarian population from CZECHOSLOVAKIA will be effected voluntary return of Czechs and Slovaks living in Hungary, taking the place of them goes to Hungary the same number of Hungarians living on the territory of the CZECHOSLOVAK republic. The czechoslovak government originally - in the fear of Hungarian revanchism - demanded deportation of the Hungarian population on the same principle, as was made expulsion of Germans. In January 1945, however, this solution was rejected by the representatives of the USA and Great Britain and unsuccessful was the last attempt of the government of the CZECHOSLOVAK republic of 12. July 1946 to include deportation in the upcoming treaty with Hungary. Both western powers insisted that was the fate of the Hungarians, who were not placed under a mutual exchange, be settled by negotiation between the two governments. In the meantime, relations between Czechoslovakia and Hungary rapidly deteriorated. Exit 95 421 of the Slovaks from Hungary, who signed up on the exchange, he got stuck in march 1947. In the framework of the exchange of population, of which the basis was agreed 3.12.1945 in Prague was in CZECHOSLOVAKIA was repatriated 71 787 persons, while in Hungary went 89 660 people.

11.12.1945 - In Prague, died in custody pre-war member of DNSAP and later reich plenipotentiary for labour deployment Rudolf Jung (born. 16.4.1882).

21.1.1946 - For collaboration were in Prague executed div. gen Robert Rychtrmoc (nar. 9.7.1875) and general of the gendarmerie Otto Blaha (Blaha testified during the war, in the trial against the colonel. Stephen Drgačovi and 6.6.1942 noted in his diary: "I'm Learning, that has to be executed thousands of persons from the circle of intelligence. I presented the p. state. sec. Frank, to be allowed to this justifikaci report former battlefield soldiers, who voluntarily reports. I volunteer as the first.“ (Tomas Pimp, Czech fascism and collaboration, Praha 1999, str. 329), mjr. Gustav Mohapl was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

13.3.1946 - In custody in Prague died a former member of NS for BdL Wolfgang Zierhut.

29.4.1946 - Before the National court in Prague started the long awaited process with some of the members of the protectorate government, based on the so-called big retribučním decree. On the issue of assessing the activities of the protectorate of ministers and other high state officials many times it was already during the war in London. Outline the legal standards for their punishment then drafted by the minister of justice foreign minister Jaroslav Stránský. Then she was confronted with the radical public opinion in the liberated Czechoslovakia and therefore the process also matters political. The government finally defended its concept that a crime must be considered only an active participation on the 15. march 1939, whereas the action in the government itself a crime. This recommendation, however, the prosecutor accepted and the prosecution did so, as would anyone who was a member of the protectorate government, committed the crime of treason under section 1 of the retribučního of the law. Against the minister of justice Prokop Drtina re-pleaded the original opinion of the government. The process of waking up the contradictions in the government, in which democratic ministers - especially Adolf Walk - would like to consistently keep to the right, and communists on the contrary, asked for severe punishment. The differences were also in the public opinion. These have been worsened by differences of perception of the recent past in the Czech lands and Slovakia. Therefore, the minister of Crumb stressed: "the Criterion of, what was an act of politically incorrect, and what offence the criminal, must conform to the understanding of the grassroots. Therefore, we are aware that this criterion will be different for the Czechs and different for the Slovaks. If we don't have to commit political errors, we need to establish a criterion which would be consistent with public sentiment." During the process there was eventually to disputes between judges. The judgment was handed down 31. July.

21.5.1946 - Before the National court in Prague ended one of the most watched post-war processes - process with the German state minister and commander of the SS and police in the protectorate, Karl Hermann Frank (b. 24.1.1898), originally a bookseller from the Sudetenland, which significantly contributed to the breaking up of Czechoslovakia. After 15. march 1939 to become the next protector of Constantine Neuratha the highest-ranking nazi official in Bohemia and Moravia. The variety of his crimes was varied: from a share of the arizaci through the preparation of a report on the expected fate of the Czech nation, in which Hitler already in August 1940 recommend "germanizaci racially eligible Czechs and the disposal of all of the other", to retaliate after Heydrichově death. Karl Hermann Frank was in Prague taken away from Wiesbaden already 7. August 1945 and the czechoslovak authorities against him, immediately launched preliminary investigation. It took up to 4. march 1946, when filed by the public prosecutor at the extraordinary people's court in Prague a proposal for the initiation of criminal proceedings. To. H. Frank was accused of crimes under a total of fifteen sections and a criminal complaint was 150 pages, 204 of the annex and the 29 witness statements. A trial was initiated 22. march in the great hall of the court building in Pankrác. The arraignment lasted for three days and the negotiations - with the exception of Sunday - twenty-nine days. 21. may declared the president of the senate Vladimir Kozak judgment. To. H. Frank was sentenced to death and the following day publicly executed at pankrác prison. The executioner was Joseph Nenáhlo, his helpers Václav Mölzer and Ladislav Brothanek.

6.6.1946 - In the american prison camp in Allendorfu in Wetalaru died former commander of the units of the Waffen SS in the Protectorate of maj -. Karl von Treuenfeld.

26.6.1946 - In Bratislava was executed prewar senator for SdP and aide of Franz Karmazina Zigmund Keil.

27.6.1946 - In Prague was executed, the journalist, the agent of the gestapo and leader of the fascist organization of Flag, Jan Feature – the Sower (nar. 1.11.1901) and his colleagues from the movement Flag, Josef Burda (born. 20.12.1893) and Jaroslav Čermák (born. 16.7.1894).

30.6.1946 - In Bratislava was executed Antonín Vašek, the former head of one of departments of the Slovak ministry of the interior, which had charge of jewish deportation.

31.7.1946 - After a three-month, often dramatic negotiations, handed down by the National court in Prague sentencing of some members of the protectorate government, accused of collaborating with the occupying power. The hearing before the National court was dramatic. In mid-July it began to be obvious that the process is directed to the heel - three members of the National court (two communists and one social democrat) asked the two death sentences, three more judges (two democrats and one national socialist) were against. The president of the court Frantisek tomsa has then refused to vote, not to determine the guilt alone. The whole situation is again dealt with by the government. The communists in the government claimed that the public is tuned in a radically and calls for severe punishment, the people's party and the national socialists, on the contrary, proving, that the citizens feel most moderately, mainly under the influence of their own experience of occupation. The court, meanwhile, decided not to grant no death penalty. And in this also way. The minister of agriculture in the protectorate government Adolf Gross was to the National court sentenced to life imprisonment, its president from January 1942 Jaroslav Krejčí for 25 years, communications minister Jindřich Kamenický to 5 years, the last prime minister Richard Bienert for 3 years and Josef Kalfus was found guilty, but without punishment. Prosecutor Francis Tržický yet demanded the death penalty for the Gross and Tailor a life sentence for Bienerta and for Kalfus and Kamenický 20 years or life imprisonment.The government to the judgments expressed 6.8.: she didn't conceal disappointment over the low sentences, respected the independence of the National court and the validity of his statement. It is agreed and nekomunistický printing. The CPC is a few weeks seeking revision of the judgment and demanded harsher punishments. Richard Bienert was released 12.5.1947 without entitlement to a pension and 3.2.1949 died. Jindřich Kamenický lived after serving a sentence on the board with the family and died 27.3.1959. Josef Kalfus lived on a pension, after 1948, he was the confiscated property and 12.6.1956 died. Jaroslav Krejčí died 18.5.1956 in the prison in Leopoldov, Adolf Gross in prison in Pankrác 9.6.1951.

2.8.1946 - Before the National court was of the accusations of collaboration cleared div. gen Vojtěch Vladimír Klecanda (nar. 15.11.1888, Russian legionnaire, February – November 1920 the second deputy chief of the main staff, 1925 – 29 military attaché in France and 1935 – 38 in Italy), which was one of our most innovative interwar officers. In custody spent illegally for 15 months (arrested 9.5.1945). At his sentencing were interested in mainly the communists. After the release was further monitored by agents of the OBZ and 22.4.1947 mysteriously died in a fall from the window.

14.8.1946 - Former prime minister of the Slovak republic in the years 1939 – 1944 Vojtech Tuk was a National court in Bratislava sentenced to death. Executed was 20.8.

28.8.1946 - In Bratislava was executed by the former commander of the Hlinkových guards and the head of the State security in Slovakia Otomar Kubala (born. 26.1.1906).

16.10.1946 – In Bratislava was executed German general of the wehrmacht Ferdinand Otto (born. 4.4.1902), the commander of the division, which in October 1944 stormed through the Muran and the bald cypress in Banská Bystrica and has contributed most to the downfall of the SNP.

23.10.1946 - In Prague, was executed by the former acting reich protector Kurt Daluege.

25.10.1946 - At the Extraordinary people's court in Litoměřice has been executed by the former commander of the police prison of the gestapo in Theresienstadt – Small fortress, Heinrich Jöckel (nar. 10.7.1899).

2.12.1946 - Before a National court in Bratislava launched the process with the former representative of the Slovak republic Jozef Yew, Alexander Mach and Ferdinand Ďurčanským. All were accused of treason, collaboration and betrayal in the rebellion and be judged according to the retroactive regulation of the Slovak national council no. 33/1945. Trial before a National court lasted until 15.4.1947. During the process occurred in Slovakia for several protest actions, among the most serious it belonged to attempt of Slovak soldiers in tank units deployed in the south Moravia, about the rebellion.

5.12.1946 - In Bratislava was executed by the former commander of the Emergency sections Hlinkových gard in the New Town waag, Jozef Gašparík.

6.12.1946 - In Bratislava was sentenced to death (later the punishment was commuted) sentenced the former head of the Exchange of state security Peter Starinský, his predecessor Ján Ambergris was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

24.12.1946 - In pre-trial detention in Prague-Pankrác died pre-war chief of the main staff and the inspector general of the czechoslovak armed forces, arm. gen Alois Podhajský.

18.1.1947 - In Prague was a life sentenced former defense minister and front protibenešovský policies of George Silver. In prison he wrote a long memory and after almost ten years of incarceration, 21.1.1955, died in the prison at mírov.

30.1.1947 - In Prague was initiated a trial with the former czechoslovak prime minister and the president of the agrarians Rudolf the Ram. At the same time with him, were before the court brought the army general Jan Syrový, the former ministers of interior, Josef Black and Otakar Fischer and former foreign minister Jiří Havelka. The court was particularly the communist press, presented as a condemnation of agrárnické reaction" and Beranova, the prosecution was carried in the spirit to the prosecution of the whole of the agrarian party. But not only this design, but also the whole of the prosecution had obvious weak spots, but the defendants were not apparent collaborators and some even paid the price to support or condoning of domestic resistance, a prison from which they emerged only after the liberation. The plaintiff asked for the Raw and the Ram of the death penalty. While Rudolf Beran proved before the court to rebut the numerous charges, he was Jan Raw down and too with the prosecution nepolemizoval, apparently shocked by the fact that he found himself before the court.

31.1.1947 - In the soviet zone of occupation in Germany were the organs of the NKVD tortured prewar member of NS for the DNSAP Rudolf Kasper
- In custody in Prague died a former member of the SdP Alfred Rosche.

15.2.1947 - In Prague were executed former members and functionaries of the SdP Georg Böhm, Johann Westen, Franz Werner, Franz Schreiber, Ernst Kundt and Hans Krebs. Of the other politicians of this party were convicted Karl Feitenhansel for life, Gustav Knöchel for 25 years, Karl Schlösser for 20 years, Gustav Peters for 7 years, Karl Garlik to 5 years, Emil Enhuber for 5 years, Gustav Hacker for 4 years, Karl Stellwag for 3 years and Benno Fischer, who was found guilty, but punishment was not meted out.

20.2.1947 - In custody in Pankrác died pre-war member of NS for National unification Franz Schwarz.

7.3.1947 - In Bratislava was executed the commander of Slovak gendarmerie during the war of maj -. Timothy Ištok (nar. 29.9.1891).

14.3.1947 - Before the people's court in Prague was from the accusations of collaboration for the proven help the Czech people liberated brother of a war criminal Hermann Goering Albert Goering (1895 – 20.12.1966). From June 1939 to the end of the war, he served as director belonging to the škoda plants in Plzeň, responsible for foreign trade.

14.4.1947 - In Prague was executed a former pilot 310. czechoslovak fighter squadron RAF Augustin Přeučil (born. 3.7.1914), which is between the resistance fighters snuck as an agent of the gestapo and 18.9.1941 during a training flight came back through France to the protectorate, where he later worked as an agent provocateur.

15.4.1947 - the National court in Bratislava issued the judgment in the process with Joseph Yew and co. Former Slovak president Jozef Tiso was sentenced to death, the former secretary of state Ferdinand Ďurčanský whether or not the death penalty, however, in the absence of. Defense attorney Joseph Tisa Ernest Žabkay filed immediately a request for mercy. For the award of grace with the government intervening whether or not the british ambassador in Prague Philipp Nichols and representative of the prague internunciatury msgre. Forni. The bureau of SNR this did not support the request, respectively. neshodlo the same opinion when the democrats Jozef Lettrich and Matej she'll be for the granting of a pardon, the communists Gustáv Husák and Karol Šmidke against and Milan Polak, who was a member of the Democratic party, but at the same time a secret member of the communist party, abstained from the vote. The government then 16.4. all the votes against the votes of the DS and CSL mercy rejected. President Edvard Beneš decision of the government to respect and mercy Tisovi refused. (When in 1946, she visited president Edvard Beneš in Topolčiankách the delegation of the legionaries, asked him Igor Daxner for his opinion on the Tisův process. The president replied: "I think I deserve to die, but it's the things neodvislého court." (Ursíny Ján, From the môjho life, Matica slovenská, 2000, str. 113). The de facto condemned the Tisa to death. Already in 1943 he got Benes despatches from the Slovak resistance group FLORA, in which it requested that after the end of the war was president Tiso was executed, because his action has a number of positive sites and for his action was not in Slovakia, no one executed for political reasons. Tiso tried to save what was in his power.) 18.4. was Jozef Tiso executed. The chairman of the court was Igor Daxner, the senate formed the Paul Polak, Andrei Friday, Ludevít Benada, Jozef Štaudinger, Simon Struhárik and Ján Demjan, a lawsuit was represented by Jiří Šujan and colonel. Anton Rašla. As advocates were Ernest Žabkay, Martin Grešo, Julius Kšiňan and Stephen King.

16.4.1947 - In Prague was executed prior to the order of Malta and the informant of the gestapo, Franz Werner, Bob (nar. 22.2.1902), that the gestapo issued the plan of the church, in which they were hiding after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich the paratroopers and significantly contributed to their disposal.

21.4.1947 - In Prague the verdict was delivered in the second process with the protectorate government. Former prime ministers arm. general Jan Syrový, and Rudolf Beran were sentenced to 20 years in prison, Jiří Havelka, Otakar Fischer and Joseph Black were freed. The whole process was manipulated. One of the witnesses, journalist Vladimir Krychtálek, before the court, said: "In September I was transferred to the ministry of interior, where I'm your berlin tours portrayed according to truth. The investigative body in the presence of five other persons said to me: "I got up and went to the Castle, to polishing some order of the Czech lion award for merit for the Ram. We need from You other statements. Aries must hang, to never be founded agrarian party and you tell us you need help.“ I was bit when I fell to the ground, I didn't want to reconcile your statement with what you said Kundt.“ A member of the SdP Ernst Kundt later also testified that his statement was enforced. The chairman of the court was George Gottweis, attorney general Francis Grospič, both members of the CPC. In the court of the senate have been meeting Jeffrey Munk, Frederick Kozelka (both CCP), George Neumann (CSSD), Augustine Kaufner (CSL) and Francis Petříček (NSS). Aries in the defense speech he declared: "I am absolutely calm. I don't feel guilty and my conscience is clean. Of the many things that I blamed mr. the national prosecutor, I was sued Frank and the accused even before the Volksgerichtem. I am aware that the process of my process is political, because I blamed primarily for their political action. Mr. the national prosecutor of their action and in particular its manifestation, which is here recited, he sat down on the dock also the republican party and its leaders.“ He further said: "Fate has placed me at the responsible posts in the most critical time in our history. I never ran from responsibility and even here I don't want her to run. What I was doing, I was always in the most honest efforts to serve their state, nation and the state.“ It finished with the following words: "Frequently during the trial was to see about what kind of policy the government doing Raw and my. I'd say generally: "we Made a policy of self-preservation of the state!" Nothing else we could do.“ The decision of the court again met with a demagogic campaign in the communist press, calling for the highest punishment. This campaign against the defendants has become the prototype of the pressure signature events for the political trials after the communist putsch.

22.4.1947 - To death were in Prague sentenced the activist-journalists from the period of the nazi occupation Vladimir Krychtálek, Karel Werner and Emanuel Vajtauer (in absentia). Jaroslav Quartz was sentenced to life in prison. Krychtálek and Werner was on the same day executed.

24.4.1947 - In Prague were executed four former members of the kladno gestapo, carrying the responsibility for the extermination of Lidice. They were the head of station Harald Wiesmann (nar. 22.4.1909), criminal secretary Otto Gehle (1.5.1901), the driver of the station Rudolf Vlček (7.4.1910) and criminal secretary of Gestapo Felkl (13.4.1913).

29.4.1947 - For the betrayal of his fellow soldiers – paratroopers were in Prague executed paratroopers Viliam Gerik, and Karel Čurda.

30.4.1947 - In Litoměřice was executed by the former commander of the jewish ghetto in Theresienstadt, Karl Rahm (born. 5.4.1907).

4.5.1947 - General Rudolf Gajda was in Prague sentenced for 2 years jail, the same punishment received and former member of the NOF Rudolf Dominik. Gajda was arrested already 12.5.1945, so shortly after the judgment, 12.5.1947, was released from prison. Gen. Radola Gajda was sentenced for their sins from the first republic, and not for collaborating, which is even the hint did not commit. After the dissolution of NOF purchased a farm and mill in south Přečíně in Volhynia, maintained relations with gen. of Elijah and HE was involved in organizing escapes of czechoslovak soldiers abroad, his son Vladimir supported the resistance group of former airmen of Bohuslav Seluckého, which Gajda spent two revolvers, and after his execution has taken his daughter to a ward. The second Gajdův son George was sentenced to 8 years for attempting to escape abroad.

5.5.1947 - Extraordinary people's courts and the National court in Prague and in Bratislava ceased their activity. Retribuce stir up many fears and jitřila political passions. Next to a fair disability indisputable culprits allow unsafe handling of personal and political accounts. In particular, the communists used it to skandalizaci of their opponents. 29. may, he presented the minister of justice Prokop Drtina in the parliamentary plenary, a summary overview report on the activities and results of the extraordinary judiciary in the Czech lands. He stated that out of a total of 132 549 complaints and the files were handled 130 114 cases. From the number of cases disposed of cases prosecutors sued 38 316 cases before the extraordinary people's courts and 4592 cases forward for further prosecution by the ordinary courts. In the 40 534 cases, it was for lack of incriminating evidence dropped from further prosecution for crimes under retribučního decree, however, these cases were largely the subject of criminal prosecution before the district national committees according to decree no. 138 of 27. October 1945 on the punishment of certain offences against the national honour. In the 14 879 cases were dropped from further prosecution, to allow the necessary displacement of Germans and the repatriation of other nationals. In 31 793 cases occurred an interruption of the criminal proceedings, as the stay of the perpetrator was not known (most often escaped the Germans), or the offender died. According to the sentencing were sentenced to death by 713 people and 741 people were sentenced to life heavy dungeon. To imprisonment were convicted 19 888 persons in the total length of 206 334 years, taking the entire punishment or a considerable part of the executing in the separate working sections. Crumb also reminded that the political importance acquired in particular cases, which were tried before a National court in Prague and were the most important domestic leaders protektorátního the regime and activists, including people zkompromitovaných from the time immediately preceding the nazi occupation. Around these cases also arose in the public, but also between the political parties in CZECHOSLOVAKIA, the most controversy and conflicts. To clear the report of the minister of Sawdust was in the days of the 10. and 11. jun wide-ranging debate and 2. July then the house unanimously approved a two-year activity of the extraordinary courts in the Czech lands, and even the votes of the communists, who in the debate raised a number of critical reservations. Retribuce was terminated. Even after the February coup in 1948, however, the CPC has pushed forward the law on the restoration of the effectiveness of the retributive decrees for a period of one year, so it could hard affect some of your opponents.

15.5.1947 - In Bratislava was to 30 years in prison sentenced the former minister of interior of the Slovak republic Alexander Mach.

9.7.1947 - In Prague was executed the son of the former minister of education, Emanuel Moravec and a member of the SS, Igor Moravec.

9.12.1947 - In Bratislava were executed former envoy and plenipotentiary of the reich minister for Slovakia, Hans Elard Ludin (born. 10.6.1905) and the commander of the German troops during the SNP gen Hermann Höfle (12.9.1898).

25.3.1948 - the National assembly adopted the law no 33/1948 Coll., establishing a redefined process retribucí for the period from 2.4. to 31.12.1948. Condemned was again a total of 1 244 people, of previously exempt were sentenced such as former chiefs of the National conviviality, Jan Fousek, and Joseph the Celestial or the former head of the bureau of propaganda of the Slovak republic in the years 1941 – 45 Jozef Tido Gašpar (7.3.1893 – 10.5.1972)..
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Zdravím, len si dovolím malú opravu, Peter Starinský nebol popravený, trest mu bol zmiernený. Ján Ambra nebol Starinského zástupca ale tiež prednosta ÚŠB a to ešte pred Starinským.
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Díky, už jsem to opravil.
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Vážený pane kolego,
narazil jsem na váš čtyři roky starý článek: 2. část - Vyrovnání ..., který obsahuje jakousi chronologii a poznámky k různým osobám. Měl jsem pocit, že vše je v pořádku do doby než jsem narazil na dva údaje, které si odporují. Obě informace se týkají armádního generála Alois Podhajského - viz:


19.6.1945
Vy tvrdíte: "... ve vězení zemřel gen. Alois Podhajský ..."


K tomuto datu si dovoluji poznamenat, že spíše patří k zatčení gen. Podhajského (po měsíci vyšetřování propuštěn z vazby).


24.12.1946
Vy tvrdíte: "Ve vyšetřovací vazbě v Praze na Pankráci zemřel předválečný náčelník hlavního štábu a generální inspektor československé branné moci, arm. gen. Alois Podhajský."


Ani v tomto případě nemohu souhlasit, protože gen. Podhajský zemřel doma ve věku 82 let (pravděpodobně na stařeckou sešlost). Navíc v té době již nebyl generálem, protože 04.06.1946 byl v nepřítomnosti odsouzen k ztrátě hodnosti a odebrání vyznamenání.


Zdroj
Postavy z kalendáře historika PhDr. Libora Vykoupila, Rozhlas Brno, pořad: Ecce Homo, 08.02.2004.
Brněnské vojenské osobnosti: Armádní generál Alois Podhajský, Listy univerzity obrany 2008, č. 6, str. 22.


Internet
/topic/postview/21832/
/topic/postview/29091/
/topic/postview/90578/


P. S.
Nevím jest-li je to vaše práce, ale na stejný text, datovaný: květen 2007, a na stejné chyby jsem narazil na adrese www.cs-magazin.com
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Retribuce-t27372#339666 Version : 0
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