Karel Čurda (10 October 1911 in Stará Hlína, today part of Třeboň – 29 April 1947 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

) was a Czech Nazi collaborator during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Wartime activities

A soldier of the

Czechoslovak army The Czechoslovak Army (Czech and Slovak: Československá armáda) was the name of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1918 following Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence from Austria-Hungary. History In the fi ...

in exile, Čurda was parachuted into the

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over m ...

in 1942 as a member of the sabotage group '' Out Distance''. Later that year, he betrayed the Czechoslovak army agents responsible for the assassination of top

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

official Reinhard Heydrich in

. His reward was 10,000,000 Kronen or 1 million Reichsmarks and a new identity, "Karl Jerhot". He married a German woman and spent the rest of the war as a

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

collaborator.

Execution

After the war, Čurda was tracked down and arrested. When asked in court how he could betray his comrades, Čurda reportedly answered, "I think you would have done the same for 1 million marks." Čurda was found guilty of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

and

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

on 29 April 1947.Czech Traitors Hanged Today
, ''

The Free Lance–Star ''The Free Lance–Star'' is the principal daily newspaper distributed throughout Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States, with a circulation area including the city of Fredericksburg and all or parts of the counties of Spotsylvania, Stafford, ...

'', 29 April 1947.

Alternative theory

Modern Czech historian Jiří Plachý gave a different account of his personality and motives. According to research, Čurda stayed with his family in South Bohemia in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. That put him under huge pressure as he knew the Nazis could wipe out his whole family or village, just as they had wiped out Lidice and Ležáky. It is posited that this was the key factor in his actions.

Čurda in film and fiction

In the film ''

Operation Daybreak ''Operation Daybreak'' (also known as ''The Price of Freedom'' in the U.S. and ''Seven Men at Daybreak'' during production) is a 1975 war film based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of SS general Reinhard Heydrich in ...

'' (1975), Čurda is portrayed by Martin Shaw. In ''

Anthropoid Anthropoid means 'ape/human feature' and may refer to: * Simian, monkeys and apes (anthropoids, or suborder Anthropoidea, in earlier classifications) *Anthropoid apes - apes that are closely related to humans (e.g., former family Pongidae and some ...

'' (2016), he was portrayed by Jiří Šimek."Full Cast & Crew"

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

In '' The Man with the Iron Heart'' (2017), he was portrayed by

Adam Nagaitis Adam Matthew Nagaitis (; born 7 June 1985) is a British actor best known for his roles as Caulker's Mate Cornelius Hickey in the AMC television series ''The Terror'' and firefighter Vasily Ignatenko in the HBO miniseries ''Chernobyl''. Nagait ...

References

1911 births 1947 deaths Czech resistance members Czechoslovak soldiers Czechoslovak military personnel of World War II Executed Czechoslovak collaborators with Nazi Germany Executed Czech people Gestapo agents Operation Anthropoid People executed by Czechoslovakia by hanging People executed by the Third Republic of Czechoslovakia People from Třeboň People from the Kingdom of Bohemia {{CzechRepublic-mil-bio-stub

Wartime activities

Execution

Alternative theory

Čurda in film and fiction

See also

References