Communist Crimes in Czechoslovakia: the Ďáblice Cemetery
The tragic fate of mothers held as political prisoners and their children
Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is universally recognized as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Although it is becoming increasingly difficult to walk the streets and bridges of the Old Town, or through Malá Strana, without being trapped among thousands of other tourists, with a little imagination can still have the impression of being transported back in time a couple hundred years.
The story I want to tell today, however, takes place far from the picturesque narrow streets and majestic old buildings of the center of the Czech capital. And in this place, on the northern outskirts of the city, not far from the main road leading to Terezín, that feeling of being transported back in time is not at all pleasant. This place is the Ďáblice Cemetery.
Since the early 20th century, a section lying immediately next to the northern walls of the cemetery was designated as the burial ground for the homeless and outcasts. Then the Nazis arrived, and they dug mass graves in that same section; that is where they would dispose of the bodies of most of the victims of their terror (among others: the paratroopers responsible for the assassination attempt on Reinhard…
