Abstract
This historical study and edition of documents focuses on a propagandistic campaign during a show trial with Milada Horáková and twelve other defendants in 1950. It reconstructs several months’ preparation for this trial on the basis of archive documents, its course, and its interpretation.
It covers the organization of the “spontaneous response” to this show trial in different Czechoslovak regions, where public meetings were held based on the instructions of the Communist party and resolutions calling for severe punishment of “traitors” were signed. It also shows that this campaign even involved children and unveils one of the saddest examples of manipulating children.
Pupils in schools were forced to write resolutions demanding severe punishment of the “traitors” while being “discreetly” questioned about their parents’ statements about the trial at home. This study also covers the role of Czechoslovak press, radio and film in the campaign and describes how the world’s media informed about the trial.