I was six years old in 1952 when the secret police arrested my dad. He was supposed to be a witness at the Slansky trial [the accused General Secretary of the Communist Party]. After dad’s arrest, mom injected me with the same stuff that she killed her dad, her sister and then herself. I survived because somebody took me to a children’s hospital. The…
By Jiřina Šiklová; translated from Czech, originally published in Literarni noviny 7/2/2OO7 Several people asked me whether I sought justice because of the persecution I experienced during the communist regime. I did not. I did not want to waste my time suing those who caused my persecution and ostracism of my children. Why should I?
Anna … Born January, 1942 in Oxford, England Lives in Prague After my father’s arrest, we moved out of Prague to live with my grandmother. I was ten and I was the only person my mother could talk to about our situation.
Intorduction The questions posed to me by Jana Svehlova are more applicable to individuals who were much younger than I was when our parents were imprisoned. In the fall of 1949, at the time of my father’s arrest, I was twenty eight. A year later when my mother was arrested, I was twenty nine. Furthermore, I survived with my brother and my mother…
Karel Sling My father was a Jew, a Communist, and he worked as a medic during the Spanish Civil War. My mother is English. She was a member of the British Communist Party and she is an Oxford graduate. They met in England during the war.
KEY WORDS: political psychology, Stalinism, show trials, socialism By Jana Svehlova With the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 — at the end of World War I — the Allies recognized the efforts of Czech and Slovak leaders to form a Czechoslovak Republic. This new republic’s large educated middle class adopted a constitution based on an American model. Prague’s University…
The Psychological Effects on Children of Czech Jewish Communists after World War II by Jana Svehlova Children of Jewish Communists were interviewed for this project because their parents held top positions in the Communist Party after World War II when those who opposed communism were persecuted. The interviewees’ parents joined the Communist Party before World…
Dear Mrs. Vlahova, Thank you for sending me the speech you intended to deliver at the 1st May public gathering at Letna on behalf of the group Daughters of Political Prisoners. I read it with interest. I appreciate your effort to let our society know about the fate of children of political prisoners whether it is done with the…
