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promote the cause of freedom?
reer to the Free Europe Committee,
*hich has a virtual monopoly on
Placing emigres on American univer-
Slty staffs. As a professor of Sociology
"' an American university, he teaches
^merican students that socialism, at
jjast in Europe, is a fine thing, and
■"at the Socialists have been the tough-
?t fighters against communism in tlie
fcast.
„ T'le program of Benes' National
™cialists, which the professors call
Poetically "a program of social justice
j"1'' the betterment of human rela-
°ris" includes nationalization of in-
"stry and other non-poetical and
8jy Socialist measures.
., ' agree with the 'professors that
(" Socialists, the minority of the
>*ech people, should be liberated
l"1"" the Communists, but I see a
c''s|c difference between liberating
Qalists as compared to preaching
Sialism, and forcing non-Socialist
'"'"ns to accept socialism in the
""re through the means of American
n°n''y spent on RFE.
'he Socialists of the National Front
'""e to the West in order to keep
Wer Xhey conspire to suppress all
"-Socialists, and, if their pla
t*ed
la from the Communists —or, to be
ins suc-
'> to take over the leadership of the
v','tivized property in Czechoslo-
^ '■> Irom the Cominu
t|)('r(' exact, to share it with them. By
]. !'' egotistic aim and their general
r,r °f intelligence and understanding
i(.| '"' international conspiracy they,
j,/0 constitute a minority of the Czech
■i(i P'e and of the exiles, confuse and
\i,0l fate the crusade of the free
r(. ''• It is interesting that these men
Si*,.*''S('nt the kind of anti-Communists
j„jPardson and his Committee seek
1 support.
PERSONAL HISTORY
^though the President of the Free
<j| i°Pe Committee has accused me
\„ 'ilving been a leader of a Nazi
l|]C ' Organization in Czechoslovakia.
•j,,r,|th is somewhat different.
\m P°Pu'ation of the Bohemian
V' (Western Czechoslovakia)
j^j 'sted of about 7 million Czechs
'h0u; million Sudeten Germans. Al-
Nier ■ t'u' Sudeten Germans lived in
I>r,pp,"lzable border regions, the Czech
'hly "tion is nevertheless consider-
Vg^cd with the Germans. I have
\ p hated the Germans — as have
"ist » "ave alwavs been anti-Commu-
K
'he Kuratorium for Youth Edu-
fftAi Communists and Socialists
ways been anti-Corn mu-
at the age of 20 years. I
r;
which was a mixed German-
Net;., Organization. I was
never a
t ,-f°n'"y °f that organization, and
e
it
alter several months, ill the
same v ear of 194.3, after becoming dissatisfied with its activities. This organization was never declared to be Nazi
or Nazi-affiliated by the Allies, and
even the Red Government of the National Front did not declare it to be
Nazi and did not persecute its members. It was only the "Kosice Government Program," which, according to
the Kersten Report caused the com-
niunization of Czechoslovakia, which
declared:
Persecuted will be the functionaries of
the' "Kuratorium for Youth Education,"
members of the "Vlajka" Committee,
members and functionaries of the "Central Trade Union of Employees" and of
the' "Union of Agriculture and Forestry." . . , [Mr. brada's italics]
In fact the Kosice Program persecuted everyone who was not pro-Communist and who had some property.
According to the Kersten Committee:
A charge of collaboration with Germany
served the' Communists as a pretext for
imprisoning and condemning ;dl potential
opposition. Everybody's political past was
(o lie- cheeked by verification commissions,
by procedures before courts and commissions, which were' withelelt basis in the
penal laws . . . tens of thousands of persons lost their jobs, civil rights, property
and liberty itself.
The Kosice Program of April 4,1945,
was a Red paper, prepared in Moscow.
It established the National Front Government, involving only Communist
and pro-Communist parties and was
led by the Communists Fierlinger and
Gottwald, as Prime Ministers, and the
Socialist Dr. Benes as President of the
State. All Czech parties of the center
and the right (the Agrarian Party,
the- National Democratic Party, the
Artisan Party, etc.), as well as all
Slovak parties which before World
War II had constituted a majority of
Czech and Slovak deputies in the
Prague Parliament, were- dissolved and
prohibited, and even the pro-Communist parties of the National Front in
man\ cases were given new, Communist-chosen leaders. Freedom of election, of speech and of the press were
abolished. Only the press of the National Front was permitted. People's
courts were established in order to
persecute all reactionaries and traitors;
the industry and trade we're forcefully
nationalized and collectivized; local
Soviets, called National Committees.
were established; and 3J> million Sudeten Germans were expropriated and
expelled, hundreds of thousands of
them had to die. It was a bloody Red
regime, led by the men who are now
in the top positions of Whitney Shepardson's Radio Free Europe.
The President of the Free Europe
Committee, as an "effort to defend
Radio Free Europe," accused that I
H
s Pobum News, May, 19.56
had studied at a university which was
restricted to Nazi collaborators. This is
false. I studied one semester in 1944 at
the University of Rostock in Northern
Germany. In autumn, 1944, I became
ill, and remained at home in Brno
until the end of the war. This university was founded in the year 1419
as the first university in Northern Germany, and, as in other German universities, many foreigners studied
there during its existence. Even Czech
student — except the Communists —
could study there even during the war.
Requirements for admission were
scholastic standing, knowledge of the
language, and general intelligence.
The Germans, as I remember, made
only racial investigations—but no collaboration with the Nazis was necessary.
The fact is that after the war I was
not persecuted because of the Kuratorium or the studies. I was fined
about two or three thousand Czech
crowns (a few dollars in the currency
of that time) by the Local National
Committee in Brno (the local Soviet)
and was kept away from the 1946 elections, not because of any "Nazi affiliations," but because of a private anti-
Communist letter which got into the
hands of the Reds in 1945.
The best proof of these facts is that
I was admitted immediately upon application in 1945 to studies at the
Czech University of Brno by a commission of three university professors
and one student. The student, a Communist, refused to sign my admission
papers, but was overruled by the three
professors. I regained my voting right
in 1948, but then in February of the
same year came the Communist coup.
1 do not believe it is Mr. Shepardson's duty to persecute me through
such personal accusations at this time
when even the National Front did not
do so earlier. Although Radio Free Europe follows many a Communist line,
I refuse to accept such a "smear" from
Mr. Shepardson for the sole reason
that he has no better defense for his
pro-Communist Radio Free Europe.
It will probably happen again and
again that the Communists, and those
who follow their line, will call all anti-
Communists Nazis or Fascists.
In February, 1948, Czechoslovakia
was taken over by the Communists, assisted by the present Radio Free Europe men, who, according to the professors, tried "to eliminate Communist
domination bv democratic methods."
Before this, however, they had eliminated all non-Communists bv undemocratic methods. The Kersten Committee describes their elimination of the
Communists by democratic methods
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