Julius Fučík
Czechoslovak journalist, critc, writer, an active member of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and part of the forefront of the anti-Nazi resistance. He was imprisoned, tortured, and executed by the Nazis.
Fučík was detained in Pankrác Prison in Prague, where he was also interrogated and tortured. In this time arose Fučík's Notes from the Gallows (Czech: Reportáž psaná na oprátce, literally Reports Written Under the Noose), which was written on pieces of cigarette paper and smuggled out by sympathetic prison wardens named Kolínský and Hora. The book describes events in the prison since Fučík's arrest and is filled with hope for a better, Communist future. The book was published in a more "acceptable" version, from which the less pleasant passages, which did not quite fit into everyone's picture of heroic resistance fighters, had been stricken. After his death those letters were treated as great literary works itself. The notes translated in many languages all over the world.
In May 1943 Fučík was brought to Germany. He was first detained in Bautzen for somewhat more than two months, and afterwards in Berlin. On 25 August 1943 in Berlin, he was accused of high treason in connection with his political activities by the Volksgerichtshof, which was presided over by the notorious Roland Freisler. Fučík was found guilty and was sentenced to death along with Jaroslav Klecan, who had been arrested with Fučík. Fučík was hanged two weeks later on 8 September 1943 in Plötzensee Prison in Berlin (not beheaded as is often stated).
After the war, his wife, Gusta Fučíková, who had also been in a Nazi concentration camp, researched and retrieved all of his prison writings. She edited them with help of CPC and published them as Notes from the Gallows in 1947. The book was successful, and its influence increased after the Stalinist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948. It has been translated into at least 90 languages. He also left an unfinished autobiographical novel named Pokolení před Petrem.
He was the nephew and namesake of the composer Julius Arnost Vilem Fucik.
“Pues el deber humano no termina con esta lucha y ser hombre exigirá, también en el futuro, un corazón heroico, hasta que los hombres sean completamente hombres.”
“Sin embargo, aunque muertos viviremos en un pequeño rincón de vuestra felicidad, porque por esa felicidad hemos dado nuestra vida.”
“Quisiera que todo el mundo supiese que no ha habido héroes anónimos. Eran personas con su nombre, su rostro, sus anhelos y sus esperanzas, y el dolor del último de los últimos no ha sido menor que el del primero, cuyo nombre perdura. Yo quisiera que todos ellos estuviesen cerca de vosotros, como miembros de vuestra familia, como vosotros mismos.”
“-Tú no tienes corazón -me dice el alto SS.-Sí lo tengo -le respondo. Y de golpe me siento orgulloso porque he sido lo suficientemente fuerte para salir en defensa de mi corazón.”