The Petschek Palace
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undergo
cruel interrogations. 69 suspected of having organized strikes or
illegal activity were sent to Terezín-small fortress, 10 of them
were taken to the concentration camp Mauthausen, ftom where not a single
one returned.
The Nazi
reacted with concentrated terror on this mass-wave of active resistance.
Hitler sent to Prague the executive of the Nazi safety police and SD SS
Obergruppenführer R. Heydrich to take over the function of the vice Riechs
proctor and especially to carry out the drastic measures against the Czech
nation.
On the
28th of September 1941 he proclaimed the summary justice and appointed
martial courts with the executive offices of Gestapo in Prague and in Brno.
The seat of Gestapo Prague was also the seat where under the chairmanship
of the vice executive was seated SS-Sturmbanführer J.E.Illmer and the police
martial court. In fact it was only a new form of terror, because the judgement
of the court consisting only of Gestapo was final and without appeal. Immediately
on September 28th they were sitting in the bassement in the room which
is now know to us under the name of "Cinema". Here they brought the chosen
victims from the Pankrác Police prison in order to sent them direct to
the palace of execution after short formal dealings, as Gestapo had decided
about all in advance. The first day the representatives of the illegal
military organization Defence of the nation the Generals J. Bílý and H.
Vojta were put to death by the Court, in the following days the members
of the first illegal CPC central executive O. Synek, the former redactor
of Rudé Právo and quite a number of arrested revolters, especially Communists.
The prague Martial Court put to death 486 persons form September 28th 1941
till January 20th 1942 and Illmer sent 2242 persons to concentration camps
by his own signature. Those who Gestapo decided would be put to death,
had formally been sentected by the martial court, but those who were sent
to concntration camps did not even get to know that they were sentenced
not being present.
1942
The Nazis took up again the tested means how to wipe out the opponents
in the Czech nation-the Martial Courts-even after the assassination of