by Unbreakable- The Woman Who Defied the Nazis in the World's Most Dangerous Horse Race (retail) (epub)
p. 224: several ditches had been widened
between 1932 and 1935, at least five obstacles were enlarged. The ditches were broadened at the eighth, the eleventh (the english jump), the thirteenth (railed fence) and the twenty-first (water-jump); in addition, the hedge at Taxis was raised at some point, to 140 cm. See Od Fantoma po Peruána ’s ‘1936’ section.
p. 224: ‘You have to, when you want to achieve something’
Lata, in an interview with Svoboda-Brno, ‘Vitěz Velké pardubické, slečna brandisová, vypravuje’ (22 October 1937). This was one of her most detailed blow-by-blow accounts of the race, and this chapter uses several other details from it.
p. 224: a horse-drawn ambulance coach . . . waited ominously
‘Dame gewinnt “Grosse Pardubitzer ”’.
p. 225: prompting Konrad Heinlein to call for ‘the Sudeten German issue to be decided with the help of the German Empire’
See: ‘Československo a evropa v čase skonu T. G. Masaryka’, by robert kvaček, in Už vícekrát nezazní tak těžce requiem . . ., p. 3.
p. 226: ‘Gehen! Jděte!’
In other words, ‘Go!’ See: Taxis a ti druzí, p. 59. I am assuming, however, that in 1937 German rather than english would have been used.
p. 226: ‘You need to . . . focus on maintaining a straight approach . . . ’
The advice in this paragraph, from eva Palyzová, is quoted in Taxis a ti druzí; as is Vacláv Chaloupka’s advice about the Irish bank four paragraphs later and, later still, Lata’s remarks – relayed by Palyzová – about the ploughed land.
p. 228: Lata was always superstitiously relieved to get the thirteenth behind her
Lata mentioned this in ‘Vitěz Velké pardubické, slečna brandisová, vypravuje’.
p. 228: ‘Without the November mud the track is a billiard table’
bizarrely, this piece appeared in the official race-day programme.
p. 230: ‘it would be easier if it was twenty centimetres higher’
liebich is quoted in Taxis a ti druzí.
p. 230: ‘The race is mine!’
Lata, quoted in ‘Vitěz Velké pardubické, slečna brandisová, vypravuje’.
p. 230: ‘Several times he tried to push us aside’
This quote comes from Šírl’s interview in Řitka v minulosti. Lata gave similar accounts elsewhere.
p. 232: ‘At last, it is done’
The quote from Wiese is reported in ‘Vítězství sl. brandisové a zahranicní tisk’ – unidentified Czech newspaper cutting from 1937 in the kinský archive in Zármsk.
p. 232: V-for-vítězství Soukup’s son – also Josef Soukup – was certain that his father pre-prepared this sash with no other purpose than to symbolise this provocative word.
p. 233: ‘it seemed to me that never before were people so truly and amicably united’
Lata’s remarks here and in the final two paragraphs of the chapter can mostly be traced to Lata’s radio interview for Český rozhlas on 10 november 1937. However, the ‘I walked with my beloved norma . . .’ quote seems to have appeared first in Express Praha on 20 October. The ‘never have I known such happiness . . .’ remarks, quoted in Přiběhy předmětů and also in Slavní koně, are attributed to a Český rozhlas interview but do not appear in the only transcript I have been able to trace.
p. 235: A photograph shows Lata sitting on a gilded chair
The picture appears in Wiener Salonblatt, 31 October 1937, pp. 7–9. It is possible that the photograph was taken in a studio rather than at the ball, but it must have been taken very close to the same time.
p. 235: Jan Masaryk was among those who sent telegrams
Interview with Lata by ‘Hilda’ in ‘U vitěsky pardubické steeple-chase’, Pestrý týden, 1 January 1938, p. 24.
p. 236: ‘I won it for you’
Obviously Petr Jaroševský, who told me this, could have no direct memory of it; but he was reminded of it many times when he was growing up.
p. 236: ‘victory for our breed’ . . . etc.
From an unidentified newspaper clipping, under the headline ‘Sensační vítěztví Normy se sl. Brandisovou’, in the Pospíšil papers. The other quotes in this paragraph are from, respectively, another unidentified clipping in the Pospíšil papers; ‘Lata brandisová, vítěz Velké Pardubické’, Republikán, October 1937; unidentified newspaper clipping (‘Velká Pardubická steeplechase 1937’) in the Pospíšil papers; ‘Žena vítězi v nejtěžším překážkovém dostihu kontinentu’, Národní listy, 18 October 1937, p. 5; ‘kazí sport ženy?’ Pražanka, Praha, 10 november 1937; ‘Žena a její svět’, Express-Praha, 20 October 1937.
p. 237: Konstantin von Neurath . . . was summoned to a meeting with Hitler
See Prague in Black, p. 24, for an account of the meeting.
p. 237: Hitler . . . would create a lucrative new race
High Society in the Third Reich, p. 126.
p. 237: ‘the most violent used by Germany against another country since 1918’
report in the Danish periodical Nationaltidente, quoted in ‘Československo a evropa v čase skonu T. G. Masaryka’, by robert kvaček, in Už vícekrát nezazní tak těžce requiem . . ., p. 3.
p. 238: ‘We must always demand so much of them that we can never be satisfied’
Quoted in Prague in Black, p. 24.
p. 238: Perhaps, even now, he and she were still seeing one another
kasalický seems to have helped put Pestrý týden ’s journalist in touch with Lata for the interview published in January 1938 (‘U vitěsky pardubické steeple-chase’); Lata, in turn, made a point of acknowledging kasalický’s contribution to her career in her Český rozhlas interview in november 1937.
p. 239: a springtime adventure on horseback involving Ra and . . . Sylvie Münster-Fuggerová
See: Zu Pferd und zu Fuss, p. 140; aleš Valenta’s Dějiny rodu Kinských, p. 200. Valenta raises the possibility that Lata may have been present when lord runciman visited Žďár nad Sázavou.
p. 240: ‘Czechoslovakia is a Bolshevik monster and must be destroyed’
The account of kinský’s words was Jan Masaryk’s, quoted by eagle Glassheim in Noble Nationalists, p. 175.
p. 240: Runciman reported that . . . their desire to join the Reich was ‘a natural development . . . ’
Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, Vol. 2 (london, 1949), appendix II, p. 677.
p. 243: More than 20,000 Jews were driven out of public life
See: Prague in Black, pp. 24–5.
p. 244: The nobility . . . were mostly enthusiastic about their nation’s new German rulers
The examples in this paragraph are cited by eagle Glassheim in Noble Nationalists.
p. 245: another declaration from a group of Czech nobles
eagle Glassheim and Zdeněk Hazdra have both written authoritatively about the nobility’s declarations of 1938 and 1939. readers puzzled by the strange mathematics (eighty-five signatories, sixty-nine signatures, thirty-three families) may also want to consult Czech Tourism’s report, compiled to accompany an exhibition at Prague Castle marking the 75th anniversary of the 1939 declaration: http://www.czechtourism.com/e/ prague-aristocratic-tidings/.
p. 247: Lata was responsible for three horses
See: ‘Můj život s koňmi’, by radslav kinský, in Chlumecké listy: časopis chlumeckého regionu, 2001 (3), pp. 18–19; also Ročníková práce: Lata Brandisová, by ester Pospíšilová (Gymnázium, 2016–17; an account prepared with input from the Pospíšil family). The other two horses were Horymír and Hostivít, although it is possible that Hostivít was kept somewhere other than Řitka.
p. 248: the new Reich-approved authorities melted down the town’s commemorative statue
I am grateful to Dr Jiří kotyk and his colleagues in the klub přátel Pardubická (kPP) for this and countless other details about life in Pardubice under nazi rule. For more on this particular episode, see: ‘Pravda o zničení pomníku T.G.Masaryka v Pardubicích’, by the
kPP editors, 3 June 2009.
p. 248: helping to distribute an illegal magazine
See: ‘Mjr Franjo aubrecht (1896–1985) a jeho boj proti totalitám’, pp. 7–8.
p. 248: eventually judged sufficiently ‘German’ in outlook
Mauve’s suitability is discussed in a long internal böhm-Mähr Jockey-Club memo, dated 8 april 1943.
p. 249: the SS Cavalry Brigade slaughtered at least 15,878 men, women and children in the Pripet Marshes
See: Himmler’s Cavalry, pp. 152–5.
p. 249: a holding camp for the Protectorate’s Jews in the Bohemian town of Terezín
The actual camp was more usually referred to by its German name of Theresienstadt.
p. 249: ‘Germanise the Czech vermin’
Quoted in Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide.
p. 249: abruptly taken into administration
Řitka was taken into administration on 16 July 1941.
p. 250: dismissed . . . a cook, a maid and a coachman
Ročníková práce: Lata Brandisová, by ester Pospíšilová.
p. 251: ‘It does not cross my mind at all to complain . . . ’
letter to lori kinský, 22 July 1941 (in kinský archive at Zármsk).
p. 251: Košťál . . . gave . . . Valčík, a job in his wine cellar . . . and persuaded him to drop . . . a large pile of plates
I was told this both by Dr Jiří kotyk and by František bobek. See also: ‘Hotel Veselka byl zbořen před 40 lety’ – pardubice.cz/zpravy.
p. 252: Most were kept beforehand in what had once been Poldi’s wellstocked wine cellar
I will not easily forget the experience of standing in the cellar with František bobek of the Československá obec legionářské before being walked, as the victims were, to the place of execution on the Zámeček grounds. Mr Bobek is overseeing an ambitious project to restore the currently derelict Zámeček to be a permanent memorial to the nazis’ Pardubice victims.
p. 252: ‘do not look for it on the map; it has been swept away . . .’
The World of Yesterday, Preface.
p. 253: ‘fighting the Bolsheviks’
lengnik’s death was reported in, among other publications, the Dutch SS journal, De Zwarte Soldaat.
p. 253: Similar fates would in due course befall Curt Scharfetter, Hans Schmidt and Heinz Lemke
So many records were lost in the war that it is not always possible to state precisely what happened to each jockey. 150 Jahre Amateur-Rennsport records that Scharfetter and Schmidt, like lengnik, ‘fell’ in the war. lemke went missing at Wolossowo, near leningrad, in January 1944, but his family appear to have held out hope that he survived until at least 1950: they placed an advertisement in Das Ostpreussenblatt (20 august 1950) appealing for information.
p. 254: their credibility as potential members of an elite killing force had been undermined by their humiliating defeat by a woman
This speculation may sound far-fetched. We must not forget that everything about Himmler and Fegelein’s weird, grotesque vision for an elite cavalry of SS enforcers was far-fetched. When I put this specific idea to the historian Henning Pieper – author of Fegelein’s Horsemen and Genocidal Warfare – he said he considered it ‘possible’ that their defeat by Lata would have discredited individual SS men in the eyes of an ‘arrogant, bossy parvenu like Hermann Fegelein’ . Paul J. Wilson – author of Himmler’s Cavalry: the Equestrian SS, 1930–1945 – felt that the defeat was more likely to have been a one-off embarrassment, but agreed that closeness to Fegelein played a significant part in determining who would be honoured with selection for his wartime cavalry. Defeat by Lata would not have endeared any of the Velká Pardubická jockeys to Fegelein and thus can hardly have helped their prospects.
p. 254: Schlagbaum . . . returned to Germany and became a successful . . . innkeeper
According to his family, Schlagbaum left Prague in 1946, with his possessions in a cart. He ran a restaurant in Geiselhöring (bayern) for a while, then – around the time that Lata was being packed off to her cottage in the woods – he set up an inn in Pfatter, near regensburg. It was reported in 2015 that this inn, still owned by his descendants, was being used largely to provide accommodation for some of the refugees that a more generous German leader, angela Merkel, had invited into europe. See: ‘Pfatterer bietet Plätze für Flüchtlinge’, by Walter Schiessl, Mittelbaterische, 12 March 2015. according to his grand-daughter, Josephine Huber, Schlagbaum would become very emotional whenever the 1937 Velká Pardubická was discussed.
p. 254: Helmut Böttcher . . . mourned for his ‘gentle, modest’ nature
Obituary, Sankt Georg, Vol. 385 no. 7, p. 25. p. 254-5: Wiese . . . was awarded the War Merit Cross
Wiese’s decoration was ‘without swords’, indicating that his meritorious service was performed as a civilian.
p. 255: Wiese . . . raced again
Hans-Heinrich von loeper, long-time secretary-general of Germany’s board of Thoroughbred breeding and racing, rode against Wiese (and beat him) in the first German Cross Country Steeplechase after the war.
p. 255: one among fifty former Olympic competitors to die in Nazi concentration camps
Their names (and camps) are recorded in ‘Olympians Who Died in nazi Concentration Camps’ at sportsreference.com.
p. 255: Kasalický applied for German citizenship and membership of the Nazi Party
See note to page 83. His application for party membership was eventually turned down.
p. 256: Soukup was the main operator of Ra’s high-risk scheme to spare his horses conscription
The scheme was explained to me by Soukup’s son. See also: Sága rodu Kinských, by karel richter.
p. 256: Norma . . . gave birth to five foals
Their names and dates of birth were napoleon (2 February 1939), nora (19 February 1941), nurmi (21 January 1942), natura (11 January 1943) and naďa (15 april 1944). I have made extensive enquiries – with particularly generous help from lenka Gotthardová and Miloslav nehyba – but it appears that no trace survives of what happened to norma after naďa’s birth.
p. 257: Ra was unable . . . to save . . . Norbert from forced labour
See: ‘History of kinský family’ at hrad-kost.cz. norbert is reported to have escaped from Germany, eventually, by bicycle – hence his subsequent involvement in events in Czechoslovakia in May 1945.
p. 257: ‘a gentleman does not behave like this’
I can find no record of this event beyond family memories, but Jan Pospíšil is very confident that something along these lines took place.
p. 258: Kasalický appears to have used his influence to make the case go away
kasalický cited this in his defence when accused of collaboration. Statement of evidence from Hanuš kasalický to the Místní národní výbor ve Všenorech, dated (presumably in error) 5 May 1945; document in Všenory library.
p. 258: a close relationship with Lata’s resident cousin, Gikina
Pavel Satorie – Josef’s grandson and Gikina’s step-grandson – believes that Josef and Gikina were lovers by now.
p. 260: ‘when my heart becomes very heavy . . . ’
letter from Lata to lori kinský, 6 December 1944; the ‘In these hard times . . .’ quote comes from a subsequent letter, dated 22 December 1944. both letters are in the kinský archive in Zármsk.
p. 261: Horses still raced, but only in Saturday ‘breeding tests’
A series of fascinating articles by Petr Feldstein about Velká Chuchle during the war can be found at http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz. See also the ‘Velká Chuchle válečná’ chapter in Velká Chuchle dostihová.
p. 261: Lata came across a wounded man
I first encountered this family memory in ester Pospíšilová’s Ročníková práce: Lata Brandisová.
p. 262: Czech partisans . . . moved closer to Řitka
Several villagers confirmed the presence of partisans and Lata’s dealings with them. However, it is sometimes hard to disentangle
memories of Czech partisans from those of Soviet soldiers, who also made use of the woods in 1945. From the Gestapo’s point of view, of course, it came to much the same thing.
p. 263: fighting in and around the radio building
The names of the seventy-nine civilians who died in the fighting can still be seen on a plaque at the radio building. For more on the role of Czech radio in the uprising, see ‘Calling all Czechs’, by rob Cameron, ‘Current affairs – Czech radio History Part III’, radio Prague, 23 May 2003 (http://www. radio.cz/en/article/41012).
p. 263: Poldi von Fugger . . . was among those who did so
There is a rather touching description of Fugger’s last moments in German uniform in Celia Sternberg’s The Journey (pp. 180–3). Urged by friends to make himself scarce, he insisted on keeping his uniform on and doing what he saw as his duty. Days later, he was captured by the Soviets, who kept him prisoner for the next decade.
p. 264: Šmejda walked to the stables to feed, water and reassure them
This is a simplified version of a long and moving hand-written account shared with me by his grand-daughter, božena Osvaldová.
p. 265: SS-Gruppenführer Count Pückler-Berghaus . . . killed first his family and then himself
There is a fascinating account of the Count’s last hours, based on the memories of a child eyewitness, by Zdeněk Oškera at pribehy20stoleti.cz, under the heading: ‘Sebevražda generála hraběte von Pücklera – autentické svědectví mé maminky’.
p. 265: ‘the last shot fired in the war in Europe’
I came across this description (‘Zastřelil se a byl to symbolický poslední výstřel druhé světové války v evropě’) in an article on the website of the old Czech Communist party (kSČM). See: ‘Válka skončila u Čimelic’, 17 December 2010, http://old.pisek.kscm.cz/article.asp?thema=5147&item=52526.
p. 265: Thousands camped there until June
local historian and chronicler antonín Dvořák estimates the number at 6,000. Mr Dvořák’s private archive includes photographs of Soviet soldiers being presented with flowers, and local young men kitted out with light weaponry.
p. 266: leading . . . separate lives
a summary of the divorce proceedings on 4 January 1947 (in the national archive) reveals that, among other things, they espoused separate nationalities: him German, her Czech.