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Czech HistoryFighter against dictatorships: Cardinal Josef Beran
Archbishop, later Cardinal, Josef Beran, become a symbol of opposition to
totalitarian regimes. He was dubbed the archbishop who refused to be
silenced. The punishment for speaking out was imprisonment first under the
Nazi occupation and then the Communists. More
From the ArchivesMilada Horáková: dignity in the face of fanaticism
Many people in Czechoslovakia greeted the communist coup of February 1948
with enthusiasm, in the belief that the horrors of the war should never be
allowed to happen again. But following the model of Stalin’s Soviet
Union, it was not long before a period of political terror began, with
thousands of arrests and then a series of political show trials. The most
horrific symbol of the period was the trial and execution of Milada
Horáková. She had been one of the most enlightened politicians of the
pre-war Czechoslovak Republic, a champion of democracy and women’s
rights, and had spent most of the war in Nazi prisons and concentration
camps. More
Czech HistoryJana Horáková-Kánský - still proud of mother's "enormous courage"
In Czechs in History this week, we speak to Jana Horáková-Kánský, daughter
of one of Czechoslovakia's best known victims of Communist-era oppression,
the democratic MP and wartime resistance hero Milada Horáková. Jana, Milada
Horáková's only child, was just a teenager when her mother was executed on
trumped up charges of treason and espionage in a 1950 show trial. Her
father - who was also targeted by the Communist regime - made a daring
escape from Czechoslovakia shortly afterwards, leaving Jana in the care of
relatives. For years she was denied the opportunity to study, finally
finding work as a dental technician. In 1968 she emigrated to the United
States, where she's lived ever since. More
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