by Unbreakable- The Woman Who Defied the Nazis in the World's Most Dangerous Horse Race (retail) (epub)
p. 267: most confiscated land was . . . allocated to small local landowners
roughly two-thirds of 1.8 million hectares of agricultural land confiscated in 1945 was redistributed in small lots. See: A History of the Czechoslovak Republic, 1918–1948.
p. 267: placed almost immediately into provisional administration
Hand-written case-note dated 6 november 1945. My phrasing is vague because it is impossible to tell who wrote the note or why. like all the surviving documents that I am aware of relating to the successive stages of Řitka’s confiscation, this can be found among the Pospíšil papers – which were still in the process of being sorted in the state archive at Dobřichovice when this book went to press. I will not attempt to identify individual documents relating to this strand of the story.
p. 267: no proof that Norma survived the war
records preserved at kladruby show that norma was alive in 1943; the april 1944 comes from ‘Po stopách Normy’, Dostihový zpravodaj, Vol. 5, pp. 12–14.
p. 270: a westward journey so cruel that, even now, it hardly bears thinking about
If you can bear to think about it, you will not find a better account than The Flight Across the Ice. It is possible that Herold, who was still alive and in Insterburg as late as 1942, was involved in the forced migration.
p. 271: a legislative attempt . . . to complete the unfinished business of land reform
For a less over-simplified account, see: ‘Collectivization in Czechoslovakia in comparative perspective, 1948–1960’, by Jan rychlík, in The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe: Comparison and Entanglements, ed. Constantin Iordachi and arnd bauerkamper (Central european University Press, 2013), pp. 181–210; or the Univerzita karlova informační systém briefing: ‘Development of the ownership right to the land in the Czech republic’.
p. 272: Most woodland ended up with the State Forest Administration
A History of the Czechoslovak Republic, 1918–1948, p. 442.
p. 272: ‘a bit of a family affair’
Quoted in Sága rodu Kinských, by karel richter, p. 129.
p. 273: after killing his groom with a bite to the neck
I am grateful to Martin Cáp for sharing with me the note about this incident written by Dr František lerche, long-time director of the kladruby and napajedla studs. according to Dr lerche, Othello killed his groom with a bite to the neck, and was put down despite energetic protests by Ra.
p. 276: accepting a lift from a drunken motorcycle rider
according to the current karel Schwarzenberg (the seventh prince), the motorcyclist was one of the Schwarzenbergs’ many tenants.
p. 276: according to Karel’s son (then aged ten)
Just to be clear, the son in question was Prince karel 7th of Schwarzenberg, born in 1937, and in later life a senator, foreign minister and candidate in the 2013 presidential election. It is difficult to avoid confusion when writing about eldest sons in the Schwarzenberg family as they are all called karel. I understand that the full title (in english) of the seventh prince is: His Serene Highness karel Jan nepomuk Josef norbert Bedřich Antonín Vratislav Menas The 12th Prince of Schwarzenberg (First Majorat) and 7th Prince of Schwarzenberg (Second Majorat), Count of Sulz, Princely landgrave in klettgau, Duke of krumlov.
p. 277: then close to their fifth and second birthdays
Václav, Génilde’s eldest son, was born on 9 October 1943; Hendrik was born on 11 november 1946. The 1948 Velká Pardubická took place on 10 October.
p. 281: 300,000 horses were sent to the slaughterhouse
This figure comes from Cyril neumann, founder of Prague’s equestrian Club Čtenice and energetic campaigner to revive the Czech nation’s equestrian heritage. The figure should be considered a back-of-an-envelope estimate, but a well-informed one.
p. 283: ‘afraid to ride without it’
eyewitness account by Dr radovan brož, in ‘Mých sedmdesát návštěv Velké Pardubická’, kPP, 2017; also mentioned in Střecha and Žmolík’s ‘O latě brandisové’ and in kovář (Reflex and Šampaňské s příchutí pelyňku).
p. 285: added the insinuation that . . . the former countess had deliberately tried to kill herself . . .
alleged in Příběhy předmětů. Miloslav nehyba also assured me that this was the case.
p. 285: a fractured skull, a broken collar bone, a complex fracture of her left leg . . . etc.
all medical details are taken from the medical report issued by Masaryk state regional hospital in Pardubice, surgical and urological ward (head doctor: Jaroslav Snopek), 17 February 1950.
p. 285: She wanted someone to summon a vet
This detail comes from Génilde kinský.
p. 286: ‘There were two horses lying in the Snake Ditch. When I saw them, it was too late . . . ’
Quoted in kovář.
p. 286: ‘Oh yes I will . . . Like the devil!’
This also comes from Génilde kinský.
p. 287: In Řitka, the Action Committee . . . approved a statement calling for the ‘severest possible penalty’
The original letter is supposedly in the national archive (a, f. Státní prokuratura Praha, PSt I 774, 1950, nezprac.; Místní akční výbor NF v Řitce – Rezoluce odhlasovaná na v řejné schůzi 7. 6. 1950 v obci Řitka, okres Praha-jih a zaslaná ministerstvu spravedlnosti) but was temporarily irretrievable for inspection during my research. It seems inconceivable, however, that – if Lata had signed the letter – the regime would not have drawn public attention to the fact.
p. 288: A secret police report a few months earlier
The report, dated 27 October 1949, focuses on the misdeeds of one of the brandis sisters’ unsuitable friends: a former buchenwald inmate called karel blumentritt. It can be found in the archive of the Ústředna Státní bezpečnosti Praha, Signature 305–332-6, pp. 129–30.
p. 289: she was still troubled by memory disorders, mood swings . . . etc.
Statement from Dr karel Mathon, university neurologist, Prague, 18 november 1950.
p. 290: Lata . . . did make friends with several of the new farmworkers
at least one of these workers, ruth kopecká, would continue to visit the sisters even in the next phase of their life. See: ‘Příběh dětství mé babičky’, by katerina kopecká, at pribehy20stoleti.cz.
p. 290: Hejmovský . . . fell – or “jumped” – from a window
There are still some who believe that Hejmovský’s death was either accident or suicide. Those who insist that he was murdered include Mirek Petřán, former managing director of Pardubice racecourse.
p. 291: Řitka showed less enthusiasm for the cause than most villages
analysis in Řitka v minulosti suggests that even in the 1946 elections – their high point – the Communists received less than a third of the local vote.
p. 291: 1 per cent of the population . . . were sent to prisons, camps and mines
A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and change, p. 531.
p. 291: Arnošt Schwarzenberg . . . spent four years in custody
See: Noble Nationalists, p. 222.
p. 292: a radical reform of the currency
Perhaps the most shocking thing about this crudely transformational policy was the fact that, the night before it was introduced, President antonín Zápotocký addressed the nation on radio to insist that ‘monetary reform will not take place’ . See: The Czech Crown – A Brief History of a Currency, by Mojmír Hampl, Czech national bank, liberec economic Forums, 16 September 2015.
p. 297: the sisters would talk briefly to the priest, Father Josef Javůrek
One local told me that Lata got on better with Father Javůrek’s predecessor, karel kroupa; but she clearly developed a close relationship with Javůrek, who took over in 1956, as well.
p. 298: a Czech-language broadcast . . . transmitted from the West
The great-nephew who told me this insisted that this was ‘radio Washington’ rather than radio Free europe, but I can f
ind no record of such a channel having existed. The Voice of america seems the only plausible alternative.
p. 299: she had won most major steeplechases in Czechoslovakia
For example: the Velká Olomoucká, the Velká Pražská, the Velká karlovarská, the Velká Poděbradská, the Velká Penešovska (five times), the Captain Popler Memorial race (as Pardubice’s kinský Memorial race was by then called).
p. 300: who had ridden in the Velká Pardubická himself
kocman rode lotos-1 in 1963 but failed to finish.
p. 301: ‘There was no way that an article about the life of the woman who won the Velká Pardubická could be published’
kovář (Reflex and Šampaňské s příchutí pelyňku).
p. 302: ‘Hanuš Kasalický . . . disgraced, dispossessed and bitterly resentful’
according to his grandson, Jan Doležal, kasalický was ‘not at all happy’ in the last years of his life. His dreams of upward mobility lay in ruins, along with his marriage and his romance with Lata; and Czechoslovakia had become what his family considered a ‘Stalinist hell’ . The Doležals fled to Switzerland in 1968.
p. 303: ‘We closed the book . . . and we never opened it again’
Quoted in Přiběh předmětů.
p. 304: According to one account of their conversation
The conversation appears in a short dramatised account of Lata’s life broad-cast as part of the Jak to bylo doopravdy series by Český rozhlas: Plus, 20 February 2017. but Lata’s remarks about Communism are also quoted in Přiběh předmětů.
p. 306: She didn’t contribute much, beyond saying how saddened she had been by Popler’s death
There is a detailed account of the meeting in Josef Pávek’s Tisíc a jeden skok.
p. 306: the British ambassador to Prague . . . had written an article for Country Life
‘An Aintree in Bohemia’, by Ronald Scrivener, Country Life, 29 March 1973.
p. 308: the director . . . ‘looked as though he spent most of his life interrogating people in a basement’
This would have been Vojtěch babánek, head of the Státní závodiště for most of the 1970s. as far as I am aware, he never interrogated anybody.
p. 309: rugged and inscrutable as an Easter Island statue
The photograph appears in Taxis a ti druzí, p. 180.
p. 310: The savagery of the collective response
Charlotte budd has been very kind in sharing her memories of her remarkable racing experiences at aintree and Pardubice. For the build-up to the 1977 Grand national, however, I have also drawn on anne alcock’s detailed and shocking near-contemporary account in They’re Off! The story of the first girl jump jockeys, pp. 114–24.
p. 316: the tomb had . . . been damaged (some said vandalised)
See: Řitka v minulosti; and the article about the tomb at http://www.prostor- ad.cz/pruvodce/okolobrd/ritka/hrobka.htm. The tomb of the nolč family (kasalický’s in-laws) in the woods above Všenory met a similar fate around the same time.
p. 317: a ‘horse paradise’
Lenka Gotthardová in ‘Perličky vzpomínek na Latu Brandisovou’.
p. 318: ‘I have loved justice and hated iniquity . . . ’
The latin words, ‘Dilexi iustitiam et odivi iniquitatem propterea morior in exilio’, are carved on Pope Gregory’s tomb in Salerno. They are a play on a less negative sentiment to be found in Psalm 44, verse 8.
p. 318: the last surviving snapshots of Lata’s life
both pictures are in the private collection of Petr breyer.
p. 320: a 416-page compilation of mini biographies
Naši slavní sportovci, by Ivan Hanousek and Jiří lacina (albatros, 1987).
p. 323: ‘I have a theory . . . that Ken is locked up somewhere . . . ’
‘Sweet Sixteen as legend Vana proves king of Pardubice again’, by alastair Down, Racing Post, 15 October 2007.
p. 323: he had seen the light – ‘actually, the flashing blue light’
‘Czech Grand national makes its european cousins look like a stroll in the park – as I learnt to my cost’, by Marcus armytage, Daily Telegraph, 5 October 2016.
p. 325: Gavin Wragg’s exuberant encounter with an equestrian statue
It is hard to explain this sensibly beyond saying that the statue is on a tall pedestal; and that alcohol may have been involved; and that, as Martin Šabata put it, ‘no one could work out how he got up there.’
p. 330: a recent set of UK figures
The fourteen-year study, led by Vanessa Cashmore of the northern racing College and carried out through the University of liverpool Management School’s Thoroughbred Horseracing Industries Mba, analysed 1.25 million available rides during that period. See: news.liverpool.ac.uk/2018/01/30/ female-jockeys-good-males-suggests-thoroughbred-horseracing-industries- mba-study/, 30 January 2018; and ‘Trainers “do not use female jockeys” despite findings of new study’, bbC Sport, 30 January 2018.
p. 335: in many countries it is nearer 80 per cent
For example: 78 per cent of riders in France are female and 80 per cent of riders in the US are female. In the Uk, according to the british equestrian Trade association’s national equestrian Survey 2015, 74 per cent of riders are female.
p. 336: champions of natural training methods, such as Monty Roberts and Pat Parelli
My thanks to Martin Cáp for pointing out the similarities between Lata’s approach and theirs. roberts even echoes Lata’s words with a (trademarked) training programme for producing well-adjusted horses called the ‘Willing Partners’ programme.
p. 338: ‘a complete trust, one to another . . . ’
Lata was writing to Petr breyer to congratulate him on his impending marriage.
p. 339: ‘a lover of honour and modesty and temperance, and a follower of true glory’
Phaedrus, Plato (246a ff), translated by benjamin Jowett.
p. 340: ‘beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things’
1 Corinthians 13: 7 (king James bible).
p. 341: good and faithful servant
The biblical ‘parable of the talents’ appears in Matthew 25: 14–30 and in luke 19: 12–27.
Acknowledgements
Lata brandisová was largely forgotten when I first set out to write this book. It turned out that there were many people, in at least seven countries, who felt strongly that she deserved to be remembered. Without their help this book could never have been written.
My greatest debt is to lata’ s family: particularly to Jan Pospíšil and Gabriela křístková, current owners of Řitka, whose inexhaustible encouragement, hospitality and often-inspired g uidance s ince I fi rst approached them out of the blue in early 2017 have been both breathtaking and humbling – and wonderfully enjoyable.
I am also more grateful than I can say to Petr Jaroševský, Alexandr Jaroševský, Countess radslav (Thamar) kinský, Countess Génilde kinský, Count konstantin kinský, Count Francesco kinský dal borgo, Prince karel VII Schwarzenberg, Dietmar Haan and ludmila S. bidwell – each of whom has a family connection to lata’s story and each of whom has helped me in important ways.
I wish there was space to thank everyone else who has helped me as effusively as they deserve. Instead, a mere name-check will have to suffice. I hope those listed will believe me when I say that my gratitude is out of all proportion to this brevity. If by some terrible oversight I have omitted someone’s name, I hope they will forgive me.
In the village of Řitka, I am particularly grateful to Pavla novotná, Jíři Mudr, radek brabenec and alena brabencová, Jana Sléhová, Jaroslava Orolová, Irene and Petr kotálová, Františka Mašková, Vlasta klabíková, antonín Dvořák and Josef Mudr – who were extraordinarily patient and helpful in the face of seemingly insatiable questioning; and, indeed, to most of the rest of the village. I am no less grateful (radiating vaguely outwards across the Czech republic) to Petr breyer, Marie Obermajerová, Vilibald Hořenek, Mička kaščá and Pavel liška (in
líšnice); to Jan Dlouhý (in Mníšek pod brdy); to alena Sahánková (in Všenory); to Jan Zágler, eva Chaloupková, Jiří Zlámaný, Petr Drahoš and božena Osvaldová (in and around Velká Chuchle); to Pavel Satorie and alena Šípová (in Prague); to Petr Dubják (and his colleagues at Metalscom, current owners of Úmonín); Dobroslav Vepřek and his family (in kutná Hora); František bobek, Martin korba, kateřina nohavová and Miroslav Petráň (all in Pardubice); Pavel Fiala, Josef Soukůp, Jiří kocman and Marcela Zhálková (in and around Chlumec nad Cidlinou); Petr and Libuše Půlpán (in Hradištko u Sadské); and Sandra resselová (in Ostrov).
Martina růžičková-Jelínková, lucie baluchová, Pavel liebich, František Vítek, Charlie Mann, Christopher Collins and Charlotte budd all very kindly shared their experiences of riding in the Velka Pardubická. The great John Francome also gave me helpful advice.
I have received tireless and spectacularly wellinformed support from Miloslav Nehyba (author and self-confessed Velká Pardubická obsessive) and lenka Gotthardová (author, publisher and president of the Czech association for breeders of kinský horses), while other wise and distinguished figures in the Czech racing world have also been generous with their advice, notably Petr Feldstein, Martin Šabata, Cyril neumann, Zdeněk Mahler, Michal Horáček, Petr Guth and Vlastimil Weiner. In the british racing world, John Pinfold, Tim Cox and Diane Hill were very kind and encouraging.
Historians who have helped me include Henning Pieper, Paul J. Wilson, aleš Valenta, Zdeněk Hazdra (director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian regimes), Jiří kotyk, radovan brož. I am also very grateful to the tireless and well-informed members of axis History Forum (forum.axishistory.com).
Patricia Clough, David Conolly-Smith, Gerd von ende, Hans-Heinrich von loeper, Dr Horst Willer, Christoph neddens, Daniela Wiemer, Harald Siemen, James Fry, Veronika Siska, renate rüb, benjamin Haas, Thomas Poehlmann and lütz Möser all played valuable parts in helping me to trace the background of Lata’s German rivals. Mandy van Häigeling and Josephine Huber, in the US, generously shared what they knew about their forebear, Willibald Schlagbaum, as did Jan Doležal, in Switzerland, about his, Hanuš kasalický. additional thanks are due to Igor kasalický, libuše křístková, Jaroslav křístek, Jan Pipek, David Vaughan, Dana Zátopková, karel engel, kateřina Mikulcová, Ivo Strauss, Jaroslav bušta, lucie Weitzová, rachel Jeffries, Jon Shack, ruzena Holub, Jana Slaviková, Jiří Sebek and Libor Sečka.
