Prague, Nov 16 (CTK) – A memorial to lawmaker Milada Horakova, the only woman executed within the 1950s political trials in the communist Czechoslovakia, was unveiled near the Chamber of Deputies on Monday.
“I believe that in this place it will be a strong appeal to those who make decisions,” Deputy Culture Minister Anna Matouskova said about the memorial.
Horakova was a lawyer who joined the anti-Nazi struggle during World War Two and she was also fighting the communist totalitarian regime that seized power in the country in 1948.
“She was not afraid to tell her opinion. She was a leading personality of the national socialists and a prominent politician of her time,” said historian Libor Svoboda, from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (USTR).
The memorial was unveiled by its author, sculptor Josef Faltus, and doctor Martin Jan Stransky who sought its building for more than three years.
The costs of the memorial were covered from a public fundraising.
The memorial shows the courtroom place for charged people, with a microphone on which a bird is sitting. Faltus´s design was selected from 23 works.
Horakova was executed for alleged espionage and treason on June 12, 1950, at the age of 48. Along with her, 12 other people were unjustly executed.
In 2009, a memorial of Horakova was unveiled near the Prague-Pankrac prison and court.
A statue of Horakova is to be placed in a park at Albertov, which is part of one of the city´s central districts.
