The Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center will screen “Milada” a film in English which tells the true story of Czech hero and democratic politician Milada Horakova (1901-1950). Milada Horakova was the only woman to be executed by the Communist regime for her political beliefs. Horakova is played by Ayelet Zurer, an Israeli actress of Slovakian descent who also starred in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich.”
The 2017 film “Milada” portrays the true story of Milada Horáková and the televised show trial orchestrated by the Communist authorities, supervised by Soviet advisors and supported by a publicity campaign.
Horáková was a public servant under Czechoslovakia’s first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, after World War I and until she was imprisoned during Nazi occupation. After World War II, she was again asked to serve in the federal government, however she refused to join the Communist Party.
That resistance resulted in harassment, which elevated to persecution and finally her death in 1950, following the rigged trial, where she refused to read a false statement of guilt, written for her for the live broadcast.
“A recording of the event, discovered in 2005, revealed Horáková's courageous defence of her political ideals. Invoking the values of Czechoslovakia's democratic presidents, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, she declared that "no-one in this country should be put to death or be imprisoned for their beliefs."
Milada Horáková was sentenced to death on 8 June 1950, along with three co-defendants (Jan Buchal, Oldřich Pecl, and Záviš Kalandra). Many prominent figures in the West, notably scientist Albert Einstein, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, French President Vincent Auriol and former US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, petitioned for her life, but the sentences were confirmed. Horáková was hanged in Prague's Pankrác Prison on 27 June 1950 at the age of 48. Her reported last words were (in translation): "I have lost this fight but I leave with honour. I love this country, I love this nation, strive for their wellbeing. I depart without rancour towards you.” Wikipedia
