Otakar Batlička (12 March 1895,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

(then part of the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

) – 13 February 1942,

Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 f ...

) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

adventurer, journalist, ham (amateur) radio operator, and member of the Czech-based Nazi resistance group Obrana Národa during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life

Batlička was born in

Vinohrady Vinohrady (until 1960 Královské Vinohrady, in English literally "Royal Vineyards" ) is a cadastral district in Prague. It is so named because the area was once covered in vineyards dating from the 14th century. Vinohrady lies in the municipal ...

. In his early adult years, he traveled around the world, probably from 1914 to 1920. After his return to Prague, he was active in many areas: in the 1920s he took part in motorcycle races and experimented with electricity; in 1932 he registered as an amateur radio operator, and constructed his own transmitter which he presented at exhibitions and lectures, working for the Prague tram network.

War years

After the

Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...

and the subsequent establishment of the

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...

, he became a member of the Obrana Národa; as a radio operator he communicated with

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. At the same time, he started writing semi-autobiographical adventure stories for young people for the magazine ''Mladý hlasatel'' ( English: ''Young Announcer''), based on his travels. He wrote more than 150 stories. In his stories, he described his experiences, which he supplemented with stories of people he met.

Death

He was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

on 14 October 1941, interrogated in the

Petschek Palace The Petschek Palace ( or ''Pečkárna'') is a Neoclassicism, neoclassicist building in Prague. It was built between 1923 and 1929 by the architect Max Spielmann upon a request from the merchant banker Julius Petschek and was originally called " ...

, and transferred to the

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

, eventually ending in the

. He died there on 13 February 1942, probably being killed by Eduard Krebsbach. After the war, he was awarded the

Czechoslovak War Cross 1939–1945 The Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 (''Československý válečný kříž 1939'' in Czech, ''Československý vojnový kríž 1939'' in Slovak) is a military decoration of the former state of Czechoslovakia which was issued for those who had provide ...

in memoriam. His life and work has been promoted by the mystificator Petr Sadecký, the creator of Octobriana, who is responsible for the many myths surrounding Batlička.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batlicka, Otakar 1895 births 1942 deaths Journalists from Prague 20th-century Czech writers Amateur radio people Czechoslovak civilians killed in World War II Czech people executed in Nazi concentration camps People who died in Mauthausen concentration camp Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross 20th-century Czech journalists