A Guide to Prague under the Protectorate #24

Alois Eliáš and Resistance representative Zdeněk Bořek Dohalský met in Josef Kalfus’s office in the Ministry of Finance until 1941. František Bürger-Bartoš was employed in the Ministry of Finance from August 14, 1939. He created a resistance group, which he successfully ran throughout the Nazi occupation. Organizational meetings for a military uprising in Prague and its surroundings were held in his office starting at the beginning of 1945. At a meeting on May 2, 1945, Bohuslav Marek, a radio worker, presented information about conditions in the radio building and handed over a plan of the building on Vinohrady Street. On May 4, 1945 a meeting was held with Adam Wohlrath, the leader of the resistance group Trávnice, in which the participants discussed the inclusion of this group in the planned uprising. However, there was no agreement because of mutual distrust. The last meeting was held here on May 5, 1945 at 9 a.m. The next meeting, planned for May 7, 1945, never occurred because of the development of events on May 5, 1945. During the Prague Uprising the building housed the headquarters of the insurgent air force. They only had one airplane, an Arado Ar-396, which operated out of the airport in Letňany, but they mainly communicated with the Bartoš Command, with the American army in Pilsen, and with insurgent groups around the airports in Ruzyňe and in Kbely. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jan Štrof was the leader.