Julius Fučík (journalist)
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Julius Fučík | |
---|---|
Born | Julius Jaroslav Fučik 23 February 1903 Prague, Austria-Hungary |
Died | 8 September 1943 Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany | (aged 40)
Occupation | Journalist and literary critic |
Citizenship | Austrian, Czechoslovak |
Alma mater | Faculty of Arts, Charles University |
Notable works | Notes from the Gallows |
Notable awards | Honorary International Peace Prize (1950) |
Spouse | Gusta Fučíková |
Julius Fučík (Czech: [ˈjulɪjus ˈfutʃiːk]) (23 February 1903 – 8 September 1943) was a Czech journalist, critic, writer, and active member of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. For his part at the forefront of the anti-Nazi resistance during the Second World War, he was imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo in Prague, and executed in Berlin. While in prison, Fučík recorded his interrogation experiences on small pieces of paper, which were smuggled out and published after the war as Notes from the Gallows. The book established Fučík as a symbol of resistance to oppression, as well as an icon of communist propaganda.
Early life
Julius Fučík was born into a working-class family in Prague. His father was a steelworker, and his uncle and namesake was the composer Julius Fučík. In 1913, Fučík moved with his family from Prague to Plzeň (Pilsen) where he attended the state vocational high school. Already as a twelve-year-old boy he was planning to establish a newspaper named Slovan (The Slav). He showed himself to be interested in both politics and literature. As a teenager he frequently acted in local amateur theatre.
Journalism and politics
In 1920 he took up study in Prague and joined the
After completing his studies, Fučík found a position as an editor with the literary newspaper Kmen ("Stem"). Within the CPC he became responsible for cultural work. He was a member of the literary and artistic group
In 1930, he visited the
In 1938 Fučík married Augusta Kodeřičová, later known as Gusta Fučíková.
In the wake of the
Beginning early in 1941, he belonged to the CPC's Central Committee. He provided handbills and tried to publish the Communist Party newspaper Rudé Právo regularly. On 24 April 1942 he and six others were arrested in Prague by the Gestapo, probably rather coincidentally during a police raid. Although Fučík had two guns at the time, he did not use them. The only survivor of the incident, Riva Friedová-Krieglová, claimed in the 1990s that Fučík had orders to shoot himself to avoid capture.[1]
Notes from the Gallows
Fučík was initially detained in Pankrác Prison in Prague, where he was interrogated and tortured. In this time he composed Notes from the Gallows (Czech: Reportáž psaná na oprátce, literally Reports Written Under the Noose), by writing on pieces of cigarette paper and smuggling them out with the help of sympathetic prison warders named Kolínský and Hora.
The book describes events in the prison and is filled with hope for a communist future. He also details mental resistance techniques to help withstand torture, which have since been used by activists around the world.[2]
In the original edition, certain passages that jarred with common notions of heroic resistance were omitted. A later edition, published in 1995, restored the missing text.[3]
Although the work's authenticity has been contested, a forensic analysis by the Prague Institute of Criminalistics found the manuscript to be genuine.[4]
Trial and death
In May 1943 Fučík was brought to Germany. He was first detained in
After the war, his wife, Gusta Fučíková, who had also been in a Nazi
Fučík as an ideological symbol
The Party found Julius Fučík and his book convenient for use as
Many places were named after Fučík, among them a large entertainment park in Prague (Park kultury a oddechu Julia Fučíka), the city theatre in Jablonec nad Nisou (1945–98), a factory in Brno (Elektrotechnické závody Julia Fučíka), a military unit, and countless streets and squares. In December 2022 the Julius Fučík street in Kyiv, Ukraine was renamed to Karel Čapek street.[5]
In 1955, Milan Kundera published a poetic tale entitled Poslední máj (The Last May) that depicts an encounter between Fučík and his Nazi interrogators.
The
The composer
References in popular culture
The position and reverence of Fučík during Communist Czechoslovakia is depicted by Milan Kundera in his book The Joke from 1967. There he describes how the portrait of Fučík hangs in public buildings where public expulsions from the Communist Party took place, and how Fučík's book is recited and used as propaganda by the Communist party.
"I recognized Fučík's Notes from the Gallows...That text, written clandestinely in prison, then published after the war in a million copies, broadcast over the radio, studied in schools as required reading, was the sacred book of the era."[7]
Reassessment
After the Party lost its power in 1989, the legend of Fučík became a target of scrutiny. It was made public that some parts of the book Notes from the Gallows (around 2%) had been omitted and that the text had been "sanitized" by Gusta Fučíková. There were speculations as to how much information he gave his torturers, and whether he had turned traitor. In 1995 the complete text of the book was published. The part in which Fučík describes how he succumbed to torture was published for the first time. In it, one learns that Fučík gave false information to his captors, saving countless lives among the Czech resistance to the Nazis. The historian Alena Hájková coedited the critical edition of Fučík's memoir.
Notes
- ^ Èeská redakce | BBC World Service at www.bbc.co.uk
- .
- ISBN 9788085639469.
- ^ "Spolecnost Julia Fucika". 2008-05-18. Archived from the original on 2008-05-18. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
- Ukrayinska Pravda(in Ukrainian). Retrieved 8 December 2022.
- ^ Marta, Nono's life, p.32
- ISBN 978-0-571-16693-0.
Selected works
Reports
- Reportáže z buržoazní republiky, published in journals, collected in 1948
- V zemi, kde zítra již znamená včera, about the Soviet Union, 1932
- V zemi milované, about the Soviet Union, published posthumously in 1949
- Reportáž psaná na oprátce (Notes from the Gallows), 1947, complete text in 1995, many editions and translations
Theatrical critiques and literary essays
- Milujeme svoji zem, 1948
- Stati o literatuře, 1951
- Božena Němcová bojující, O Sabinově zradě, Chůva published in Tři studie, 1947.
Other
- Pokolení před Petrem, an autobiographical novel, unfinished, 1939
See also
- Julius Fučík (1872–1916), composer and Fučík's uncle.
References
- Notes from the Gallows, ISBN 0-87905-252-X
- Radko Šťastný: Čeští spisovatelé deseti století, Prague 2001, ISBN 80-903071-0-8
External links
- Quotations related to Julius Fučík (journalist) at Wikiquote
- Howard Fast: Review of Notes from the Gallows, 1948
- Biography (in Czech)