Václav Sedláček

Václav Sedláček, passport photography

Václav Sedláček ( April 22, 1917 in Recklinghausen - October 28, 1939 in Prague ) was a Czech socialite gymnast and worker who was murdered in the street by the Nazi regime during a resistance rally on the Czechoslovak Independence Day .

Life

Václav Sedláček's parents had moved to Germany for work. They had two sons. Václav Sedláček completed compulsory school and then began an apprenticeship as a miner, but had to emigrate to Ústí nad Labem (Aussig), his parents' hometown, in 1933 after Hitler came to power . Although he wanted to continue his apprenticeship underground, he only found an apprenticeship in a bakery .

In the autumn of 1938 Hitler and his Wehrmacht marched into the Czech border regions and the family fled to Prague. The young man also worked as an apprentice baker in Prague. He joined the Sokol gymnastics movement and the Mládež Národního souručenství , the National Youth Union. On March 15, Hitler and the Wehrmacht also occupied the so-called " rest of Czech Republic " in violation of international law and established the so-called Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Václav Sedláček and his family were thus under National Socialist rule for the third time .

The resistance in the Czech Republic formed slowly at first, with leaflets. On October 28, 1939, the anniversary of Czechoslovak independence , the resistance of the Czech population to the German occupying power erupted in mass demonstrations and strikes across the country. This day had traditionally been a national holiday, but the Nazis abolished it and ordered the population to go to work. In Prague, the students were particularly active and held a first demonstration in the center of the city in the morning. In the afternoon, a large crowd gathered on Wenceslas Square , festively dressed, often with black ties as a sign of mourning over the destruction of the state by the Nazis. The historian Petr Koura estimates the number of participants, lower than his specialist colleagues, at 60,000 to 80,000: "The national anthem is sung, folk songs are sung."

Although the demonstration was peaceful, the National Socialist occupiers under Reich Protector Konstantin von Neurath reacted brutally. They demanded from pro forma President Emil Hácha that the Czech police intervene and break up the demonstration, which he ordered. In the streets around Wenceslas Square, the Gestapo , the SS and the Schutzpolizei were positioned and simply shot into the crowd. There were serious injuries, including medical student Jan Opletal , who was shot in the stomach, and there was one dead, 22-year-old Václav Sedláček. He was hit in the heart at 6:25 p.m. at the intersection of Žitná and Ve Smečkách. He died five minutes after being admitted to the hospital.

Jan Opletal also died - two weeks later - as a result of the gunshot wound. Sedláček's funeral was held on November 4, 1939 in a cemetery in Braník, only his closest relatives and friends were allowed to attend. The press was not allowed to report on it. The funeral was supervised by the Gestapo and finally canceled.

Commemoration

Monument in Prague, Žitná ulice

Today there is a memorial at the place where Opletal and Sedláček were shot.

Web links

• Student Opletal a dělník Sedláček , commemorative broadcast from Česká televize (Czech)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Till Janzer: Resistance to Hitler's occupation: October 28 and November 17, 1939 , Radio Praha , October 24, 2009, accessed on May 22, 2016.