Marie Kudeříková
Encyclopedia
Marie Kudeříková (24 March 1921, Vnorovy
, today Hodonín District
, Czechoslovakia – 26 March 1943 Breslau, Lower Silesia
, Nazi Germany
, today Poland
) was a student active in the Czech resistance to Nazi occupation
during the World War II
. In 1941 she was arrested by Gestapo
and at a subsequent trial she was sentenced to death. She was executed in 1943. While in prison, she wrote 32 letters, later published under the title "Zlomky života: listy z vězení" (Fragments of Life: Letters from Prison). Kudeříková was a sympathizer of communist ideas and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
later used her legacy as its propaganda tool. Her life story was featured in the film "...a pozdravuji vlaštovky" (And Give My Love to the Swallows) by the Czech director Jaromil Jireš.
, Moravian Slovakia
. Her father, Josef Kudeřík, was a member of Czechoslovak Legions
in Russia. During the difficult period of German occupation of Czechoslovakia
he actively participated in anti-German activities in south-eastern Moravia. At that time, his oldest daughter Marie began attending gymnasium
in Strážnice. There she befirended Julius Kramarič, a young supporter of communist ideas who came to the school from the Slovakia. Under his influence, she found an interest in Marxist ideas
, which caused a conflict in her religious family. She later commented: "Julek (meant Julius) laid the theoretical foundation of my whole future work." They both graduated in 1940, at the time when Germans
decided to close Czech universities. Kudeříková went to study in a language school in Brno
and Kramarič left Vnorovy. The pair broke up shortly before that, which Kudeříková later mentioned with pain in her letters from prison.
The language school was moved from Brno to Veverská Bítýška
, and at that time Kudeříková joined the Youth Union, an organization closely connected to the banned Central Committee
of the Communist Party. She helped to organize production of banned publications and posters. She once even attempted to burn down a local factory warehouse. Later she focused her activities on carrying out sabotage with a group of young people from surrounding towns and villages. In mid-1941, during a wave of arrests, she found a shelter in a village of Lažánky
. In autumn of the same year she left to Brno, where she continued her activities in the Youth Union.
Kudeříková was arrested by Gestapo
on 5 December 1941 in Brno. The interrogations took place in Brno and Prague, the trial was held on 16 November 1942 in Wrocław (then Breslau). Both her parents attended the trial. She was sentenced to death by beheading. After that she spent more than 100 days in prison waiting for the execution. During her imprisonment, she worked as a painter of children's toys and began writing the recollections of her life in the form of letters. She has managed to secretly sent her letters out of the prison with the help of a friend and a prison guard. Kudeříková was executed on 26 March 1943, two days after her 22nd birthday. In her last letter, written the same day, she wrote: "Farewell to you, I greet, I love. Do not weep, I'm not crying. Without wailing, without a tremor of fear, without pain I leave, I come to what should be the goal, not the means." The brutal method of her execution (beheading by axe) shocked the Czech society, however, it was banned to talk about the circumstances of her case.
After the liberation of Czechoslovakia and subsequent establishment of communist regime
, her life story and heroism became a suitable theme for political and ideological education of young generations living under a communist regime. Kudeříková appeared as an important historical personality in the textbooks of Czechoslovak schools.
Following the fall of the communist regime
in Czechoslovakia, the legacy of Maruška Kudeříková was questioned in a documentary made by Czech Television
. Among other things, the documentary notes that a poorly organized resistance action arranged by Kudeříková and her collaborators led to the imprisonment of many innocent persons in German concentration camps.
Vnorovy
Vnorovy is a village and municipality in Hodonín District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 3,005 ....
, today Hodonín District
Hodonín District
Hodonín District is one of seven districts within South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic...
, Czechoslovakia – 26 March 1943 Breslau, Lower Silesia
Province of Lower Silesia
The Province of Lower Silesia was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1919 to 1945. Between 1938 and 1941 it was reunited with Upper Silesia as the Silesia Province. The capital of Lower Silesia was Breslau...
, Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, today Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) was a student active in the Czech resistance to Nazi occupation
Czech resistance to Nazi occupation
Czech resistance to German Nazi occupation during World War II is a scarcely documented subject, by and large a result of little formal resistance and an effective German policy that deterred acts of resistance or annihilated organizations of resistance...
during the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1941 she was arrested by Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
and at a subsequent trial she was sentenced to death. She was executed in 1943. While in prison, she wrote 32 letters, later published under the title "Zlomky života: listy z vězení" (Fragments of Life: Letters from Prison). Kudeříková was a sympathizer of communist ideas and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
later used her legacy as its propaganda tool. Her life story was featured in the film "...a pozdravuji vlaštovky" (And Give My Love to the Swallows) by the Czech director Jaromil Jireš.
Biography
Kudeříková was born to a Catholic family in VnorovyVnorovy
Vnorovy is a village and municipality in Hodonín District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 3,005 ....
, Moravian Slovakia
Moravian Slovakia
Moravian Slovakia or Slovácko is a cultural region in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic on the border with Slovakia and Austria, known for its characteristic folklore, music, wine, costumes and traditions...
. Her father, Josef Kudeřík, was a member of Czechoslovak Legions
Czechoslovak Legions
The Czechoslovak Legions were volunteer armed forces composed predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I...
in Russia. During the difficult period of German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this effort was the alleged privations suffered by...
he actively participated in anti-German activities in south-eastern Moravia. At that time, his oldest daughter Marie began attending gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Strážnice. There she befirended Julius Kramarič, a young supporter of communist ideas who came to the school from the Slovakia. Under his influence, she found an interest in Marxist ideas
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, which caused a conflict in her religious family. She later commented: "Julek (meant Julius) laid the theoretical foundation of my whole future work." They both graduated in 1940, at the time when Germans
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...
decided to close Czech universities. Kudeříková went to study in a language school in Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
and Kramarič left Vnorovy. The pair broke up shortly before that, which Kudeříková later mentioned with pain in her letters from prison.
The language school was moved from Brno to Veverská Bítýška
Veverská Bítýška
Veverská Bítýška is a small town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.The town covers an area of , and has a population of 2,953 ....
, and at that time Kudeříková joined the Youth Union, an organization closely connected to the banned Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
of the Communist Party. She helped to organize production of banned publications and posters. She once even attempted to burn down a local factory warehouse. Later she focused her activities on carrying out sabotage with a group of young people from surrounding towns and villages. In mid-1941, during a wave of arrests, she found a shelter in a village of Lažánky
Lažánky (Brno-Country District)
Lažánky is a village and municipality in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 654 ....
. In autumn of the same year she left to Brno, where she continued her activities in the Youth Union.
Kudeříková was arrested by Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
on 5 December 1941 in Brno. The interrogations took place in Brno and Prague, the trial was held on 16 November 1942 in Wrocław (then Breslau). Both her parents attended the trial. She was sentenced to death by beheading. After that she spent more than 100 days in prison waiting for the execution. During her imprisonment, she worked as a painter of children's toys and began writing the recollections of her life in the form of letters. She has managed to secretly sent her letters out of the prison with the help of a friend and a prison guard. Kudeříková was executed on 26 March 1943, two days after her 22nd birthday. In her last letter, written the same day, she wrote: "Farewell to you, I greet, I love. Do not weep, I'm not crying. Without wailing, without a tremor of fear, without pain I leave, I come to what should be the goal, not the means." The brutal method of her execution (beheading by axe) shocked the Czech society, however, it was banned to talk about the circumstances of her case.
After the liberation of Czechoslovakia and subsequent establishment of communist regime
Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948
The Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 – in Communist historiography known as "Victorious February" – was an event late that February in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, ushering in over four decades...
, her life story and heroism became a suitable theme for political and ideological education of young generations living under a communist regime. Kudeříková appeared as an important historical personality in the textbooks of Czechoslovak schools.
Following the fall of the communist regime
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
in Czechoslovakia, the legacy of Maruška Kudeříková was questioned in a documentary made by Czech Television
Czech television
Czech television may refer to:*Television in the Czech Republic*Česká televize...
. Among other things, the documentary notes that a poorly organized resistance action arranged by Kudeříková and her collaborators led to the imprisonment of many innocent persons in German concentration camps.
Marie Kudeříková in fiction
- Zlomky života (Fragments of Life, 1961) - afterword by Mojmír Grygar
- Jiří Havel: Šestý den jara - verses
- František Omelka: Maruška - short story
- Lubomír Kuchař: Zlomky života a smrti (Fragments of Life and Death)
- … a pozdravuji vlaštovky (And Give My Love to the Swallows, 1972) - film directed by Jaromil Jireš
- Památky na mě... - documentary, 2002, 28 min., directed by Jan Novák