By profession - a paratrooper, "cichociemny", by choice - a collaborator. After the successful underground coup on the protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich, he began to rain down. He himself reported to the Gestapo and in exchange for a small sum he directed the Germans to the trail of at least 250 people. Most of them paid for this betrayal with their lives.
Disclosure
SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Jantur, Gestapo criminal commissioner, post-war testimony:
“On June 16, 1942, at around 12.50 pm, a young man entered the large hall of the office, which was properly arranged as an interrogation room for receiving the expected denunciations, and in Czech demanded to speak to one of the high officials as he had to make a substantial denunciation.
Already upon his entrance, I noticed great anxiety, so it must have been something special. In a trembling voice, he gave me his name:Karel Čurda, then stated that was a British paratrooper agent and that he could therefore make an important denunciation about the attack. However, he immediately asked if he would be shot and what would happen to his old mother.
Karl Čurda's last look.
After I calmed him down and shook my hand, I assured him that he would surely get away without punishment as long as he contributed to the explanation of the attack and that no action was taken against his mother, he informed me that he had seen a briefcase in a certain person from the display in the Bata store. Claimed that he would recognize it by being damaged in one place.
I immediately sent for the Criminal Investigator Pannwitz, who, after briefly interrogating Čurda, informed the office manager of the “right track”. Čurda was later continuously interrogated from the afternoon until the next morning by the then criminal investigator Gallus, who had a reputation as the best interrogation officer. Were translated by Jäger and Schwerdtner.
Čurda revealed the names of the likely bombers and the details of other paratroopers with whom he was in constant contact. He also gave a whole list of apartments:his own and other agents. Čurda asked to see the briefcase found at the scene of the attack. ”
Poison handkerchief
Before they bring briefcases from the window on Wenceslas Square, Jantur asks the paratrooper if he is hungry. Čurda nods. After a while, Chrt, who is on duty, brings Čurda lunch from a nearby restaurant.
In the last wave of rebellion, Čurda tries to quickly get a poison tablet from a tissue he got in England. The investigator rushes over immediately and with a violent blow knocks the pill from his hand.
The text is an excerpt from Miloš Doležal's book “Tailor, gendarme and paratrooper. Three Tales of Czech Collaborators ", which has just been published by the Publishing House of the Jagiellonian University.
Briefcases
Aspirant Václav Kocourek, commander of the police station:
( and on the side he cut a piece of cloth, supposedly for Berlin, then put it back.SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Jantur:
Even before showing the aforementioned briefcases, Čurda revealed that the folder he had seen at Gabčík's house in the Svatošs' apartment before the attack was scratched under the zipper . This place was covered up by Gabčík with brown shoe polish. Indeed, Čurda immediately recognized the briefcase found at the scene of the attack.
Moreover, Čurda testified that a few days before the attack, Gabčík wore a gun-metal in this briefcase. An expert opinion carried out by the Technical and Criminal Police Institute of the Security Police in Berlin showed that the last owner of the briefcase used it to carry grass and clover, i.e. feed for rabbits.
Environment
The dam has been broken. A wave of detentions is starting. Prague, Pardubice, Pilzno, Lázně Bělohrad, Police nad Metují ... About fifty people were arrested in a flash during the day. Including Čurda's relatives.
During the interrogation of Hana Krupkova, the Gestapo determines that the Cichociemni are hiding in some basement in Prague. After a brutal interrogation of Vlastimil Moravec, they obtain accurate information that leads them to the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius on Resslova next to Charles Square.
At 4:15 AM, the entire neighborhood around the church is occupied and tightly surrounded.
Dead bodies of the bombers dragged onto the pavement. With his back turned K.H. Franki, Curda among them.
After the first phase of the battle, the limp body of the defender taken from the church lies wrapped in a carpet on the pavement at the corner of Resslova and Václavska Streets. Čurda and Moravec are brought in to identify the body. They bend over the dead.
Čurda even gets the impression that he is still moving. He notices that his right arm seems to be broken. Dressed in a pullover. Adik Opálka. His commander. Then they will be taken to the Lazaret in Podolí. Two more lie on the stretcher. Covered Jan Kubiš. He does not recognize the tall one. They give him a boost of stimulation. She takes her last gasp sharply. Josef Bublík.
Check the reviews and rate the book on lubimyczyotyk.pl. “A tailor, a gendarme and a paratrooper. Three stories about Czech collaborators ”
Source:
The text is an excerpt from Miloš Doležal's book “Tailor, gendarme and paratrooper. Three Tales of Czech Collaborators ", which has just been published by the Publishing House of the Jagiellonian University.