Abstract
The publication concerns Czech writer and film director Vladislav Vančura (1891-1942) who was executed during WWII. Rather than being a biography, it comprises two studies about Vladislav Vančura.
The first dealing with his involvement in the anti-Nazi resistance movement in which he played an important role. He was set to become the chairman of an organisation called National Revolutionary Committee of the Intelligentsia which was formed between 1941-1942 by the then illegal Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) from the ranks of artists and intellectuals with the apparent aim of gaining popularity for the party from the general public once the war would be over.
For this reason no party functionaries were chosen for its leadership, instead well-known personalities from science and culture were selected. Vladislav Vančura, who represented a group of writers, was supposed to take the helm of the National Revolutionary Committee of the Intelligentsia as soon as it was fully set up.
Vančura was arrested by the Gestapo on 12 May 1942. This was based on a confession by Jaroslav Klecan, a former member of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War who was arrested on 24 April 1942 along with journalist Julius Fučík.
According to the only interrogation record still in existence, Vančura completely denied any involvement in the resistance. He was, nevertheless, shot by firing squad in the Prague quarter of Kobylisy on 1 June 1942.
This was not for his underground activities - of which the Gestapo had very limited information - but because of his status as a famous Czech writer. The reason for this was that Heinrich Himmler had ordered the execution of hundreds of the most eminent Czech personalities after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
The second part of the book deals with Vladislav Vančura's second life - i.e. the way in which he was commemorated after his death. Immediately after WWII the KSČ hailed him as its chief martyr who had sacrificed his life for the Communist ideal, despite the fact that it had expelled him in 1929.
The Communists, moreover, took advantage of his name during their campaign for the general elections in 1946. After the Communist takeover in February 1948, the KSČ replaced Vančura with Julius Fučík as its chief martyr.
By the end of the 1950s he was once again granted public tributes by the Communist regime.