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26. 3. 2014 15:09

Member of the anti-communist resistance and opposition recognised by the Ethics Commission - Marie Susedková

The Ethics Committee has awarded a certificate to the participant in the resistance and struggle against communism Mrs. Marie Susedková, née Hrubá, date of birth 22. 12. 1930, for active operations in the group “Jan Hudec et al.”, whose members fought against the communist regime by distributing leaflets, harbouring persons, smuggling, procuring weapons, intimidating Communist Party and Local National Committee officials, smashing Communist Party promotional boxes, amassing weapons and transmitters, etc., from May 1949 to September 1949, carried out in the form of resistance as defined by § 3 Para. 3 of Act No. 262/2011 Coll.

Mrs. Marie Susedková, maiden name Hrubá, was born on 22. 12. 1930 in the village of Rozstání, district of Prostějov. She still lives in the village to this day.

In May 1949 Jan Hudec (* 14. 5. 1905), who was an executive and head shearer at the tailors’ cooperative in Rozstání, established a resistance group, primarily intended to write and distribute subversive leaflets and letters. In addition to sending threatening letters to Communist Party officials, he also reproduced and disseminated over 1000 different subversive leaflets (“Cherish the communists – they will soon be no more!”, “Save yourself, if you can!”). He acted as an intermediary for those feeling abroad and attempted to obtain weapons for armed resistance. In July 1949, through his brother-in-law Jan Brunclík, Jan Hudec established contact with the resistance group “SVĚTLANA”. In August of the same year, in order to cover up his resistance activities, he established a local branch of the Czechoslovak Red Cross. Jan Hudec was arrested in October 1949. His resistance group continued to operate until November 1950.

A total of 12 people were involved in the resistance activities and, through a decision passed by the State Court in Brno dated 2. 11. 1951 (3 Ts II 39/51), were convicted of treason and espionage: Jan Hudec (20 years old), Miroslav Jančík (15 years old), Josef Kratochvíl (13 years old), Jan Petržela (12 years old), Cyril Kuběna (11 years old), František Strejček (8 years old), Ladislav Kratochvíl (7 years old), Drahomír Kratochvíl (6 years old), Františka Jedličková (5 years old), Antonín Bezděk (4 years old), Ladislav Zukal (1 year old) and, last but not least, Marie Hrubá, who the State Court in Brno found guilty and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment without probation, together with the confiscation of all her property, a fine of 10,000 CZK and the loss of her honorary civil rights for three years following her release.

The subversive activities of Mrs. Marie Susedková, née Hrubá, began in May 1949, when she knowingly harboured her cousin František Kolář and his friend Hynek Malý, when she knew that they were armed and fleeing arrest due to their active involvement in the resistance group where they lived, as they wanted to escape abroad. Through her friend Františka Jedličková, Susedková arranged an illegal meeting between František Kolář, Hynek Malý and Jan Hudec, who she knew was involved in subversive activities. When Jan Hudec secretly visited Hrubý, he asked Marie Susedková and her friend Františka Jedličková to keep watch at the window and door; both heard the conversation in which Jan Hudec informed František Kolář and Hynek Malý about his illegal group; František Kolář and Hynek Malý then asked him about weapons, and requested the loan of a typewriter.

In July 1949 Marie Susedková visited her friend Františka Jedličká and asked her to go, as instructed by Jan Hudec, to visit Mr. Bláha in Rosička. Mrs. Františka Jedličková testified as follows: “Hrubá told me that Hudec had described the route to Rosička precisely and so we couldn’t get lost. Going to the address that Hrubá had, we found Bláha, and Hrubá told him that she was carrying a message from Hudec.” It was at Mr. Bláha’s house that both friends met Hynek Malý, whom Marie Susedková told that they had been sent by Jan Hudec, “to bring him a couple of addresses”. Hynek Malý later rode off on his bicycle, and when he returned he told them that he had one address and would get the other from an acquaintance of his, where they would both be spending the night. Then, together with Hynek Malý, they went to Kunštát, where they stayed the night with a young married couple. Františka Jedličková also testified that: “After a while Hynek wrote down the long address he had received from an unknown man we had stayed with, and placed both addresses, which were unknown to me, into an envelope, which he sealed and gave to Marie Hrubá, saying that Hudec should burn the letter after reading the addresses.” On their return they gave the envelope to Jan Hudec, instructing him to destroy the addresses after reading them. According to Františka Jedličková, Jan Hudec later asked them to tell no one of their trip. Františka Jedličková also stated that: “We promised him that, although we knew that what we were doing constituted subversion.”
With regard to the above it is clear that Marie Susedková actively assisted in the work of the resistance group by acting as an “intermediary”.

The Ethics Committee has therefore clearly established that by her actions in 1949, when she actively became involved in the activities of the resistance group “Jan Hudec et al.”, Marie Susedková committed an act of resistance and opposition to communism as defined in § 3 Para. 3 of Act No. 262/2011 Coll., as she played an active part in an organisation or group whose members fought against the communist regime in the ways specified in § 3 Para. 1 and Para. 2 a), i.e. specifically in the form of an armed or other comparable struggle against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, smuggling or other comparable brave deeds, as well as through systematic or long-term or otherwise significant activities involving the authorship petitions or similar materials or public statements aimed directly or indirectly at restoring freedom, democracy and the weakening of the communist regime or having them printed or disseminated.

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