Hunting the Hangman
Page 28
She endured a seemingly endless wait, fully anticipating the bitterness of her arrest at this final hurdle, then, to her absolute amazement, the train finally began to roll gently forward. Liběna peered out of the window, watching the last light corner of the sky begin to darken above her as the train picked up speed. It was going to be another bitterly cold Prague night and, for the first time in her young life, she would not be there to feel it. Liběna was leaving her city, unsure if she would ever be able to return.
By morning she would find herself in Slovakia, a territory proclaimed loyal to Germans, which meant, ironically, that it was entirely free of them. Liběna could visualise nothing beyond her arrival at the house of Josef’s uncle, but resolved that, whatever happened, she would prevail, with or without his child to care for. As the train pulled inexorably away from the darkening city, she whispered his mantra quietly to herself, alone in the cold and empty carriage:
‘Each day in turn, Liběna, each day in turn.’
THE END
RECKONING
‘Pravda Vitezi’ – ‘Truth Shall Prevail’
Czech National Motto
Three days after the siege at the St Cyril and St Methodius Church, Captain Alfréd Bartoš was wounded during a Gestapo attempt to arrest him. He died the next day.
Ladislav Vaněk was also arrested and immediately offered to cooperate with the Gestapo. He betrayed agents from his own Jindra group and was spared as a reward for his treachery. He survived the war.
On 24 June the Nazis targeted another village for destruction. This time the entire adult population of Ležáky was rounded up and killed. They joined the many thousands of victims of the terror instigated in reprisal for the death of Reinhard Heydrich.
Bishop Gorazd was eventually executed on 4 September 1942. Father Vladimír Petřek followed him before a firing squad the next day.
After the war, the village of Lidice was rebuilt and the anniversary of the tragedy that befell it is still remembered. Max Rostock, the man who oversaw its destruction, was finally arrested in 1948 and sentenced to death, eventually commuted to life imprisonment. He served just eleven years in a Czech prison before being released and allowed to return to West Germany, on the condition that he worked there as a spy for the Czech authorities under the cover name ‘Fritz’. He died in 1986.
President Beneš returned from exile in triumph. Thousands turned out to welcome him home but his victory was short lived. He was outmanoeuvred by the communists and resigned in June 1948. He died a broken man just three months later. Beneš always denied any involvement in Operation Anthropoid.
Anton Svoboda, the man meant to go on the mission instead of Jan Kubiš, survived the war and lived to be an old man.
Walter Schellenberg was arrested in 1945 and sentenced to six years imprisonment for war crimes. Released in 1951, he completed a fascinating memoir, which confirmed the perilous existence of a life working for Heydrich. This autobiography, The Labyrinth, published in 1956, includes the use of his wife’s racial impurity against him by his own superior. Schellenberg died of liver disease, aged just forty one.
Paul Thümmel, the double Agent 54, was kept in Theresienstadt for three years under a false name to avoid scandal. The Gestapo murdered him days before the end of the war.
Adolf Eichmann fled to Argentina but was kidnapped by Mossad agents and taken to Israel to stand trial for his crimes. He was hanged in 1962 aged fifty-six.
Martin Bormann committed suicide in Berlin during the final Russian assault.
Heinrich Himmler was captured by the allies in 1945 and killed himself with a cyanide capsule.
Karel Čurda never got to enjoy the rewards of his treachery. He was arrested at the end of the war trying to smuggle himself and his money across the border. Condemned by a Czech court, he was hanged as a traitor.
Karl Frank finally achieved his ambition to be the most important man in Prague on 22 May 1946 – when more than five thousand Czechs, including survivors from Lidice, made the journey to Pankrác prison to see him publicly hanged. It is not recorded if he appreciated this irony.
Poor Anna Malinová died in Mauthausen concentration camp, one of the six million victims of the Holocaust. However, I could find no record of the fate of Liběna Fafek. It is not inconceivable that Gabčík would have tried to get her out of the Protectorate following the assassination. Slovakia was a logical destination as he had many relatives there – all of whom were spared Nazi retribution to continue the façade of supposed neutrality. By contrast, twelve of Kubiš’ relatives were executed in the reprisals and thirteen of Valčík’s. So, when Liběna boards the train at the end of the book, it could very well have happened this way and I like to think that it did.
Reinhard Heydrich was responsible for the deaths of millions. His part in the implementation of the Holocaust came to light when a single copy of the minutes of his Wannsee Conference was discovered in the archives of the German Foreign Office after the war. Left there by Martin Luther, it was the only evidence the meeting ever took place, and remains the sole document confirming that senior German officers discussed the systematic annihilation of the Jews. Heydrich really did worry he might have Jewish blood and shot his reflection in the mirror in a fit of self-loathing when drunk.
Heydrich was the most senior Nazi figure to be assassinated by the allies in World War Two. His relatively early demise meant he avoided the scrutiny other leading Nazis received during the postwar Nuremberg trials. As a result he is not as widely known a figure as he might have been and his name subsequently avoided the infamy it thoroughly deserved as the true architect of the Holocaust.
When I visited the St Cyril and St Methodius Church, it was almost exactly as it was in 1942, except the crypt had been turned into a museum. Thousands have visited the site and its bullet-scarred walls sport wreaths laid by individuals and organisations from all corners of the globe. The church is a shrine to the memory of Josef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš.
‘The terrible consequences of the assassination of Heydrich are well known. We know the price we paid for that assassination. Freedom is something that has to be paid for. It was an act which had much to do with the fact that we finished the war as a victorious state and not as a defeated one. This deserves to be fully recognised, because if we are truly and fully free, then it is thanks to those men and to the victims that the assassination cost us.’
Czech President Václav Havel, 31 May 1992
Acknowledgements
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to No Exit Press for believing in this book. From writing the first word to final publication, it has been a long and sometimes arduous seventeen years. In particular I want to thank Ion Mills for publishing Hunting the Hangman and sharing my fascination with this incredible true story.
I would like to thank the great team at No Exit; Steven Mair for helping me with the editing plus Frances Teehan and Maddy Allen for all their hard work behind the scenes. Big thanks also to Claire Watts and Clare ‘CQ’ Quinlivan. As always, you are all an absolute pleasure to work with.
Massive thanks to my literary agent, Phil Patterson at Marjacq for all his support on this book and all of the others. It is hugely appreciated. Thanks also to Sandra Sawicka at Marjacq for arranging my foreign rights.
Authors need help and support along the way. The following people kept me going with their faith and assistance when it was needed most; Adam Pope, Andy Davis, Nikki Selden, Gareth Chennells, Andrew Local, Stuart Britton, David Shapiro, Peter Day, Tony Frobisher, Eva Dolan, Gemma Sealey, Keshini Naidoo, Dave Nellist, Katie Van Sanden and, of course, Emad Akhtar.
An enormous thank you to my loving wife Alison, who lived with the research and writing of this book, as well as the countless rewrites. She came with me to Prague to visit the locations where the story unfolded. She knows how much it means to me to have Hunting the Hangman published and her support has been unflagging
.
My amazing daughter Erin is a constant source of inspiration and makes the hard work worthwhile. The best thing about being an author is being at home with you Erin. Love you always.
Copyright
First published in 2017
No Exit Press
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© Howard Linskey, 2017
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