Narrator: Marchand Steenkamp.
About the story: The story of Bedřich Reicin reveals a chilling continuity between Nazi occupation and communist terror in Czechoslovakia during and after the Second World War. Born in 1911 as Friedrich Reinzinger, Reicin rose from a radical communist activist to one of the most feared figures in postwar Czechoslovakia, shaping a system of repression that destroyed thousands of lives.
Following the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, political life was driven underground as violence, surveillance, and repression became the norm. Reicin, a committed communist with experience in illegal operations, was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Pankrác Prison in Prague. After his release, he traveled to the Soviet Union, where he became closely tied to Soviet intelligence structures. During the war, Reicin emerged as a key communist power broker within the Czechoslovak military units formed in the Soviet Union, cultivating loyalty, eliminating rivals, and securing Soviet backing. After liberation in 1945, Reicin became head of Obranné zpravodajství (OBZ), the military intelligence service. Under his leadership, the army became a tool of political cleansing. Officers who had fought against Nazi Germany were screened, arrested, tortured, and imprisoned as enemies of the new regime. These practices intensified after the communist coup of February 1948, blurring the line between wartime repression and postwar dictatorship. Reicin played a central role in the persecution and execution of democratic officers, most notably General Heliodor Píka, the first victim of communist judicial murder in Czechoslovakia. Thousands of soldiers passed through prisons, labor camps, and interrogation centers where methods rivaled those of the Gestapo—this time inflicted by fellow citizens.
Ironically, Reicin himself became a victim of the Stalinist system he helped build. Arrested in 1951, he was tried in the Slánský show trial and executed in 1952. Though later rehabilitated, Reicin was never held accountable for his crimes. His story stands as a stark warning about how ideology, power, and fear can turn resistance into tyranny.
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