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Political Prisoners.eu as a Partner Organisation of the European Project

5.1.2013

NGO Politicti vezni.cz is a partner organization of the European project: "The BG and FYROM victims of Stalinism - today victims of forgetfulness and ignorance" since December 2012.

Border Crossings: Coming of Age in the Czech Resistance

17.10.2012

BORDER CROSSINGS: COMING OF AGE IN THE CZECH RESISTANCE – release of new book about the Czech resistance, filled with heroic adventures and bravery. The book is one man’s remarkable tale of his incredible life and a testament to the human capacity to survive.

K.Ch. in Washington, DC

25.8.2012

On September 13, at 6:30 pm, Tomáš Bouška presented the film K. Ch. – The Documentary Portrait of a Female Political Prisoner at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in the USA as part of the Embassy’s Film Club series and on September 14, at 1:30pm at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC.

K.Ch. in Finland

22.8.2012

Members of the civic organisation Political Prisoners.eu have introduced the documentary portrait of a former political prisoner Karla Charvatova in yet another foregin destination. The movie was presented on a free-of-charge screening in the Finnish city of Tampere. The presentation was followed by discussion with representatives of academia and wide public.

The story of Vlasta Jakubová

16.7.2012

Vlasta Jakubová was born on March 13, 1925 in Oždany, Slovakia. During World War II she was engaged in the Czech resistance as a contact to her uncle, Colonel Josef Robotka. After February 1948, she joined the anticommunist resistance, again working with her uncle. She was arrested for this “treasonous” activity on August 6, 1949 and given an eighteen year prison sentence. Her uncle, General Josef Robotka was sentenced to death and executed in 1952. Vlasta stayed at Cejl, Znojmo, Ruzyně and Pardubice prisons and work camps at Minkovice and Chrastava. In 1959 she was set free on probation.

Welcome to the updated website of Political Prisoners.eu

This site was originally created in the fall 2008 with the following objectives:

attract the attention of youth and general public by publishing life stories of former prisoners of Stalinism
offer the stories in written as well as video and audio formats (short sequences)

The published content was enriched, edited and updated by volunteers of the Czech civic organisation Political Prisoners.eu in July 2011. Thanks to their efforts we have proofread all our English interviews and made them more comprehensive. At least we tried. Though we are mostly Czech researchers we are constantly working on delivering more content in English.

This website became part of a trans-disciplinary, non-governmental and non-profit oral history project which aimed at commemoration of former political prisoners who survived jailing in Stalinist prisons and working camps in the former Czechoslovakia and other European countries. In 2009 - 2012 we developed new initiatives, events and networks targeted at a more profound research interest in the field of oral histories of politically oppressed around the globe.

Commemoration of victims of Stalinism, in our opinion, was of an utmost importance not only when the whole world celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of Iron Curtain. Former political prisoners were and still are the living witnesses of past. They certainly should not be heard only on anniversaries. We do not have many chances left to listen, research, and learn from their stories. However, we are the witnesses of the future and thus potential carriers of their important memories. We wish to contribute to the exchange and popularisation of their memories. That is why you can find here transcriptions of oral history interviews and narratives and short multimedia.Yet all he ideas expressed in the narratives are the narrators’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the interviewers or of the Political Prisoners.eu.

We would like to invite everyone interested in supporting this project to contact us via email: info@politicalprisoners.eu.

Thank you in advance for your interest and help!

The Team of volunteer research initiative Political Prisoners.eu.