Reports reaching here from Czechoslovakia today said that a series of “show trials,” similar to the trial of Rudolph Slansky during the Stalin era, in which charges of “Zionist conspiracy” are expected to figure, are being planned by Soviet occupation authorities. According to the reports, the Russians have given Czech authorities a list of several hundred names, mostly of liberals and including many Jews or Czechs of Jewish origin, with orders not to let these people leave the country.
Czechoslovakian Premier Cernik has been forced to agree to these demands and border posts have been instructed accordingly, the reports said. The Russians are said to have compiled their list of accused from files confiscated at the beginning of the Soviet occupation last August from the Czech secret police and the Ministry of Interior. Among those listed to stand trial is Prof. Eduard Goldstuecker, a prominent Czech-Jewish author and academician who was president of the Czech Writers’ Union and vice rector of Charles University in Prague. Prof. Goldstuecker escaped from Czechoslovakia at the time of the invasion and is presently lecturing at Sussex University in England. He has accepted an invitation to lecture as visiting professor at the Institute of German Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden, in the fall of 1969. The reports said the trials would be conducted by Czechs but that the prosecutor and probably the judges will be selected from hard-line Communist associates of former President Antonin Novotny.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
