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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
Current AffairsFormer show-trial prosecutor freed by presidential pardon
The Czech Republic’s oldest prisoner, Ludmila Brožová-Polednová,
received a full pardon from President Václav Klaus on Tuesday and was
promptly released from prison, bringing a definitive end to one of the most
controversial justice cases in the post-revolution Czech Republic. The
89-year-old communist era prosecutor ultimately served one year and seven
months of a six-year sentence for her part in the 1950 state execution of
democratic politician Milada Horáková, and remained defiant even as she
left the prison gates. More
SpotlightThe inside story of the history of Prague’s Pankrác prison
Pankrác is a byword in the Czech Republic for the large prison that stands
a little way outside the centre of Prague. The prison has been the focus
for much of the worst and some of the best that has happened over the last
120 years. Appropriately, some mementos have been stored for posterity.
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