Execution of Milada Horáková commemorated, Young Communists demand her murderer be released

Saturday, June 27th was the 59th anniversary of the execution of Czechoslovak politician Milada Horáková, the only woman to be executed during the communist show trials. In honor of the Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communism, several events were held throughout Prague. Commemorations took place at the monument to the victims of communism at the foot of Petřín Hill and at the prison in Pankrác where Horáková lost her life. Another event took place on náměstí Hrdinů (Square of Heroes) at the founding stone for a monument to Horáková which should be erected during the next year. At 7 in the evening, the Scouts lit 10 000 candles on Wenceslas Square.

The commemoration at the Petřín monument was attended by dozens of people, including former political prisoners and politicians. Wreaths were laid by representatives of the Office of the President, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Green Party chair Ondřej Liška, Libuše Benešová and Miroslava Němcová were among those in attendance. According to Prague Mayor Pavel Bém, it is necessary to remember not only famous victims such as Horáková, Kalandra and Píka, but also those whose names we do not even know. Prime Minister Jan Fischer was unable to attend due to the floods; in his place, Justice Minister Daniela Kovářová spoke at the gathering. Paradoxically, she was a member of the Communist Party prior to 1989.

Former political prisoners met at Pankrác Prison, where Horáková lost her life, to honor the democratic politician’s memory and that of the other victims of the show trials. From 1949 – 1960, 226 people were executed there. The communist regime imprisoned more than 250 000 people in Czechoslovakia for political reasons between 1948 and 1989. However, the exact number of victims is hard to determine. Many cases are not registered at all in either court or police files. A total of 248 people were executed for political reasons, while hundreds of others died in prison and in labor camps.

Their fate was to have been commemorated at the prison by a memorial comprised of a three-meter-high plinth, a granite slab with the names of those executed and a bronze bust of Milada Horáková. However, only the founding stone of the memorial has been laid so far. The designers planned to raise money for the memorial through a public collection, but for the time being have raised only a fraction of the necessary funds. Current Communist Party officials Vojtěch Filip and Miloslav Ransdorf as well as other politicians have contributed. Only one-fourth of the needed two million crowns has been raised. “I did not expect it would be so hard to raise the money. I thought it would go faster,” said collection organizer Bohdan Babinec.

One designer of the monument says it is intended to be easily understood by the average person. “The depiction must express the victims’ strength, their isolation, and especially their heroism,” said sculptor Jan Bartoš, one of the project’s designers.

The torture and execution of political prisoners was commemorated yesterday at the cemetery in the Prague neighborhood of Ďáblice as well. About 40 people came to honor their memory. “I will never forget how people were celebrating in the streets when they executed her. As a young girl growing up, it was rather sad,” recalled Milada Peterová, who remembers the execution taking place before dawn on 27 June 1950. The verdict was supervised by five representatives of the regime, among them former state prosecutor Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, who is now serving her own prison sentence and seeking clemency. “Prisoners in the prison hospital at the time were not able to see or hear anything of the execution, but allegedly a woman was heard laughing afterward,” Aleš Kýr, head of the Prison Services Office of Documentation and History told Czech Television.

On Saturday evening, thousands of candles were lit on Wenceslas Square in Prague. Scouts, members of civic initiatives, politicians and members of the public could come throughout the evening until midnight to light one of the 10 000 candles available.

“The event is meant to send the message to the public that we should not forget about certain things, that we stand for certain values, and that those values must be protected,” Petr Marek of Civic Platform told ČTK. The organization put the event together with the Prague Scouts.

Organizers said each candle was meant to represent a victim. Historians say there were between 10 000 and 20 000 of them, but exact numbers cannot be determined.

Dozens of people came to light the candles at the foot of the statue of St Václav. Former Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) and former PM Mirek Topolánek (ODS) both spoke. Topolánek lit a candle for a 14-year-old boy shot while trying to emigrate and for Zdena Mašínová. Milan Paumer, a member of the Mašín Brothers resistance group, also came to honor the victims of communism.

The sad anniversary of Horáková’s execution was also exploited by a 20-member group of the Young Communists’ Union of Czechoslovakia and the Roma youth organization Kamaste Dživel!, which demonstrated against the imprisonment of former state prosecutor Brožová-Polednová. The demonstration in support of Horáková’s judicial murderer, against the growing “Fascisization” of society and against the effects of the current crisis of capitalism was held in Světlá nad Sázavou, where the 87-year-old is serving her sentence.

Brožová-Polednová was sentenced by the High Court in Prague to a six-year prison term for her share in the judicial murder According to David Pazdera, spokesperson for the Young Communists’ Union of Czechoslovakia and the main organizer of the demonstration, the former prosecutors for the “workers” was merely upholding the laws in place at the time when she sentenced Horáková to death.

A group of 12 Communists arrived by train from Brno for the demonstration, while about 10 representatives of the Roma youth organization arrived by car. The town hall did not object to the gathering. The parade route was lined with dozens of police officers and many cars full of anti-extremist specialists. The demonstrators, who carried flags and banners reading “Stop Fascism and Racism”, were accompanied by members of the police anti-conflict team.

Pazdera said organizers picked Světla nad Sázavou because it is a center of neo-Nazism and the state had let the local glassworks go bankrupt. Speaking on the square, he said it is necessary to fight against the creeping “Fascisization” of society. Other speakers said people should support the left in the next elections. One thing, however, was missing: An audience. Only a few opponents of communism gathered in addition. Some right-wing radical supporters followed the event from a distance, behind the police lines. In October 2006, the Interior Ministry dissolved the Communist Youth Union over the content of its program document. Two years later, the Young Communists’ Union of Czechoslovakia was registered.