Prague, city ring road
the place where Václav Morávek was killed · Milady Horákové, 160 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
  • Story
  • Place

I believe in God and my guns

Available in: English | Česky

Late in the afternoon of March 21, 1942, Václav Morávek was supposed to meet the double agent Paul Thümmel at the Střešovice tram depot. However, Václav Morávek sent his agent, Václav Řehák, to the place instead. Řehák was surrounded and arrested by the Gestapo agents. A few minutes later, Václav Morávek was killed at the nearby intersection of the present-day Svatovítská Street and Milady Horákové Street. The last moments of his life are described by historian Vilém Čermák by employing the autopsy protocol. According to his findings, on that fateful early evening Václav Morávek got off the tram at the Prašný most Bridge, where he either wanted to monitor the situation or help Řehák who was in imminent danger of being captured by the Gestapo. However, he ran into two members of the Gestapo. He managed to throw away his briefcase, where he kept compromising documents and money which should have enabled double agent Thümmel – who was pursued by the Gestapo – to go abroad. Then he opened fire at the Gestapo agents and they returned fire. In the course of the fierce firefight that followed, Morávek was hit several times. Even though he had been severely wounded, he continued to fire at his enemies. He fell on one of his knees and tried to stand up. At that moment, he was hit in the buttocks and fell on his right side. Finally, he succumbed to one of the last gunshot wounds that he had suffered. The autopsy report refutes the theory that the strongly religious Morávek committed suicide. The fatal injury was caused by a shot that pierced the aorta through the left hip – an injury that he couldn't have caused himself. The last two bullets to the head were shot by one of the Gestapo agents. At that point, however, Morávek was most likely already dead.

Hodnocení


Hodnotilo 0 lidí
Abyste mohli hodnotit musíte se přihlásit! 

Routes

Not a part of any route.

Comments

Antonín Šolc
2013-05-06 07:15:57
Bylí i tací, kteří začli dříve než 5.5.1945 . Komu čest tomu čest !
Václav Morávek

Václav Morávek

Václav Morávek was born on 8 August, 1904, in Kolín, in the family of a grammar school professor. Since his youth, he was a Boy Scout and a deeply religious man. In 1925, he successfully completed the Military Academy in Hranice. After the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939, he was demobilized (he had the rank of a staff captain by then). He unsuccessfully tried to cross the border into Poland. As early as 1939, he joined the resistance organization Defense of the Nation in the region of Kolín. After his arrival in Prague, together with LtCol. Josef Balabán and LtCol. Josef Mašín, they created the intelligence/sabotage group "Three Kings". They carried out a number of sabotage and diversionary operations and maintained contacts with the Czechoslovak exile representation. Their boldest action became the bombing of the German Air Ministry and the police headquarters in Berlin. They also unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Heinrich Himmler. Since the spring of 1940, Václav Morávek went into hiding since the Gestapo was on his heels. In spite of the huge risk, he managed to mock his pursuers from the German secret police. He also managed twice to escape from the encirclement of the Gestapo. Despite the arrest of his two associates from the group, he carried on his resistance activities. On 21 March, 1942, he was killed in a shootout with agents of the Gestapo. In 2007, the historian Vilém Čermák published the much-acclaimed book "A Man against the Occupation" (Muž proti okupaci) dealing with the life of Václav Morávek. By employing new sources like the autopsy protocol and further evidence, Čermák managed to reveal new details about the last moments of Morávek's life.

Prague, city ring road

Available in: English | Česky

Staff Captain Václav Morávek was killed on March 21, 1942, near Prašný most Bridge, after a shootout with agents of the Gestapo. In the mid-1960s, a small stone monument was installed at the site of his death. Due to the construction of the Prague Ring Road and the Blanka tunnel, the monument was moved to the barracks in Prague-Dejvice in 2008 and it has stayed there until today.

Prague, city ring road

On this place

I believe in God and my guns

I believe in God and my guns

Václav Morávek
Please enter your e-mail and password
Forgotten password
Change Password