(The honorable Life: The Trial of Věra Běhalová in the religious discrimination Lawsuit to Barta and Company in the early 1950 s)
Author: RODAN, Kamil
DOI: 10.17846/SHN.2018.22.1.132-154
Source: Studia Historica Nitriensia, year: 2018, vol.: 22, number: 1, pages: 132-154
Abstract: Religious discrimination lawsuits of the late 1940s and early 1950s are one of the darkest chapters of Czechoslovak history. In the largest of these (Bárta and Comp.), the late art historian Věra Běhalová (1922–2010) was sentenced to treason and spying at the beginning of November 1952, Věra Běhalová conscientious Catholic and female employee of the French Embassy, at the request of Charles University professor Růžena Vacková, was instructed to deliver a secret correspondence and send it by diplomatic post to the capitalist countries. The seven-year sentence was served by Věra Běhalová in full across a number of Czechoslovakian prisons, including in famous Želiezovce near Nitra in Slovakia. The desire to study forced Věra Běhalová, to emigrate in October 1969 to Austria where she studied at the University of Vienna and became famous in her field. Thanks to her unfortunate fate, she worked for the Czech diaspora abroad and helped Czech students and scientists altruisticly.
Keywords: VĚRA BĚHALOVÁ; BÁRTA AND COMPANY; 20TH CENTURY; DISCRIMINATION; LAWSUIT; CHURCH;
Language: CZECH
Publication order reference: Slezské zemské muzeum, Nádražní okruh 31, 746 01 Opava, Czech Republic, mail: rodan@szm.cz