What were the traitors who collaborated with the occupiers during the war and handed over their compatriots to death? Did they mean money, a sense of strength, or were they doing it out of duty? Here is a story of a tailor who did not have a sewing hand, but had a talent for ... sticking his ear.
Czech journalist Miloš Doležal, author of the book "Tailor, gendarme and paratrooper", analyzes the attitudes and motives of traitors who decided to cooperate with Germany during World War II. The heroes, or rather "anti-heroes" of his books are:the tailor Bohuslav Bušta, the gendarme Oskar Felkl and the professional soldier - Karel Čurda.
Only the figure of the third one is somewhat known in Poland, because he was the perpetrator of a great "kick" in the Czech resistance movement after the attack on Reinhard Heydrich.
"The Altar" with Hitler
The motives behind the actions of another collaborator described by Doležal, the tailor Bohuslav Bušta, were more prosaic. It was all about money. Bušta was an ordinary village craftsman, he worked in a small tailor's shop, but he did not like his work because he simply did not have a heart for it. He decided to take advantage of the opportunity created by the war and change his fate.
The national-socialist activity of Bušta, his uncle and a few other friends was limited to drinking and haying under the "altar" with a portrait of the leader.
After the Germans entered Czechoslovakia, he hung a portrait of Hitler on the wall. He approached his uncle, a hotelier of German origin. One day, during a visit to a relative, Bušta completed an application to the NSGSA (National Socialist Guard of Slavic Activists), which stated: "I am ready to unconditionally fulfill the program of the Leader and Chancellor of the Reich Adolf Hitler and I promise military loyalty" .
Initially, there were no consequences for it, and the national-socialist activity of Bušta, his uncle and a few other friends was limited to drinking and hajling under the "altar" with a portrait of the leader. However, Bušta was just gaining momentum.
A talent for collaboration
First, he became a collaborator and informant of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, Reich Security Service - editor's note). He traveled around villages on a bicycle and listened under the windows of pubs, houses and village clubhouses. He reported what he heard and was rewarded for it. His "creativity" was quickly noticed by the Gestapo, which recruited him, nicknamed him "Thread" and prepared a remuneration system.
For Bušta, there are, among others, a fixed monthly salary of CZK 500–1500 and a bonus system:for messages leading to the detection of economic criminals - CZK 300, for particularly important discoveries - CZK 500, and in the event of exceptional successes - a one-off fee of PLN 2,000–10,000. crowns. "Thread" must have made a lot of money in the Gestapo because - unlike the work of a tailor - he had a real talent for this. One of his actions was a real masterpiece:
Gestapo members together with their informants come up with a devilish plan - dig a bunker in the forest, mask everything carefully and become a partisan unit organizing the activities of the resistance movement and preparing the creation of illegal national committees on the entire Wysoczyzna.
"Thread" and his companions trap dozens of naive resistance activists sleeping on a bunk between disguised Gestapo men and inadvertently revealing hiding places, passwords and the data of many other co-workers or those hidden colleagues who escaped from forced labor in Germany. Most of them later end up in Terezín or another German concentration camp or are shot.
The text is based on the book by Miloš Doležal Krawiec, gendarme and paratrooper. Three Tales of Czech Collaborators ", which has just been published by the Publishing House of the Jagiellonian University.
He acted by sending his countrymen to death until the end of the war. As late as January 1945, when the defeat of Germany was very imminent, Bušta showed the Gestapo officers where to gather members of the underground detachment. The German pursuit group surprised the conspirators in the forest. Three of them died while trying to escape. The three souls award for Bušta from the Gestapo boss was extraordinary - 5000 crowns and 150 cigarettes. In the days following this action, mass arrests and brutal interrogations took place in the entire area. Fortunately, these were the last strides of the Reich's security services in the territory of the Czech Republic.
It dissolved into thin air
At the end of April, the Gestapo began to burn documents, and its officers, dressed in civilian clothes and equipped with false documents, tried to sneak in the direction of Bavaria, wanting to be enslaved by the Americans. They knew that if they fell into the hands of the Soviets, they would not live long. And the possible captivity in the US Army camps, although it may last for a long time, will certainly take place in civilized conditions.
Bohuslav Bušta "Nić" did not escape from the Czech Republic. In the last days of the war he was in hiding but did not leave his country . It is not known what he was counting on, but it is known that he miscalculated, because he quickly fell into the hands of the "wetboys" of the new power - first the Czech National Security Corps, and then the Russian investigators from the NKVD.
In June 1945 Bu š this one is brought to trial. Without a trace of regret and with a hint of pride, he testifies:We managed to uncover illegal underground traffic in three counties and completely liquidate it. Thanks to our work, about 350 people were arrested. We were the terror of offices and public institutions.
In late April, the Gestapo began to burn documents, and its officers, dressed in civilian clothes and equipped with false papers, tried to sneak in the direction of Bavaria, wanting to be enslaved by the Americans.
On the night of April 22-23, 1946, three men escaped from the arrest in Humpolec, helping themselves with a pick, a painting ladder and a blanket. Among them was Bušta, who had previously told his fellow prisoners that he intended to flee to Austria.
On December 9, 1946, the Extraordinary People's Court in Kutna Hora sentenced him to death by hanging. However, it was a default sentence, because Bušta, a Czech collaborator, traitor, informer, SD and Gestapo agent, with hundreds of lives on his conscience, disappeared into thin air, although not entirely. But more about that in the book…
Source:
- M. Doležal, Krawiec, gendarme and paratrooper. Three Tales of Czech Collaborators, Jagiellonian University Publishing House 2021.