THE CONFESSION
-Are they back? -No, no.
-Is it one of your cars? -It's not my Service's
I don't handle important figures.
You're being followed, that's for sure.
It must be his Services. There must be an explanation.
One can't say they are being cautious
Why are you doing this? What do you want?
Let's start again
-Since when? -Three days
-Are you sure? -There they are.
Good. Let's see.
What makes you think it is a security car?
If it is not, then you should take measures to protect me.
I have rights. Here, the plates of the cars that followed me.
Find Pavel.
You forget the comrades. If they point to me, they point to you.
And every other Spain veteran. I'm sick of it
Why not face me with Noël Field?
I know very well that he is under arrest in Hungary.
Yes!
Who is behind this? They are after the veterans.
Those who went to France or London.
...during the occupation.
You think you'll escape because you are in security?
Loebl, Pavlik, Feigl were also in high places.
And they are all in jail. The Vice-minister of security...
...is at the Party School, as a pupil.
Otto has lost his job. Today it's me. And tomorrow?
Whose turn will it be?
Are they security cars?
You don't know what goes on in your job. Control the orders.
If they come from whom I think they do it could be dangerous.
-Aren't they aware? -Better this way.
Why not? It affects them.
-Did you come together? -No. We coincided -Oh, yes?
When we are watching veterans there are no coincidences.
-It looks like a brigades’ meeting. -"Watch"...
There are problems. But nobody is watching me.
You lost your job. Sling is in jail.
Me, at the Party's School they teach me dialectics.
The positive and negative. The deepening of the class...
...struggle, as socialism is built.
The vice-minister is being followed, and the security chief doesn't know about it.
The shoemaker's son always goes barefoot.
Renounce, leave your job, do your self-criticism.
They won't accept my renunciation and I'm kept from everything.
-Type this for the Department Chiefs meeting -But...
... the meeting was this morning.
What's this supposed to mean?
-The Minister said it wasn't necessary you came -The believed him.
Gérard, I no longer believe anything. I wonder where will we end up.
The Party decides and clears up misunderstandings. It's obvious.
-Unless it comes from further up. -I thought it was about Field.
The secretariat told me it's not about him. Bederich said:...
The Field case is finished. The Secretary General...
The meeting is useless.
But Gérard insists. It's important for him.
He has a lot of work. He will call you.
As for the Party, all cleared.
You know how security works. It's a grave situation.
But you have friends there. You are in charge of security.
He has problems too. He knew Noël Field as well.
We will have our own processes.
-No, the circumstances are different. -They are the same.
We shall find the spies and traitors in our country.
Did you speak with my successor? The new Minister.
That's what he thinks.
You have a terrible record.
This matter is not done with.
Ramifications everywhere: Poland, Germany...
You should see him.
Come. They won't believe we met...
...to remember Spain.
We already feel guilty, don't we?
Don't forget.
They are still waiting. I'll ask the minister to see you.
I'm with Gérard, he wants to talk to you. He's very worried.
Tell him to come tomorrow. Since that business with Field he's been falling lower.
Many comrades were with Field during the occupation.
-The Party knows it. -We weren't able to see the enemy.
Treason and death are part of the Revolution.
We knew it.
Now it's our turn to taste treason and death...
...so that the Revolution can go on. That's the important thing: That it goes on.
Even if we must die.
Go see him tomorrow.
-What else is there to do? -Nothing. Trust the Party.
Who is it?
Are you the Frenchwoman? Soon your husband will hang.
What is it?
Nothing. Wrong number.
Who are you? What do you want?
Let me go! Let me go!
The handcuffs.
I want to see the Party member in charge.
Shut up. You can ask for nothing.
-Who are you? I demand to see... -Shut up!
Undress him.
Put it on.
Bills, odd papers...
Pen...
Watch, keys...
Wedding ring...
Wallet...
-350 crowns... -350...
-Party card. -cards...
Family photos.
Here is the Frenchwoman.
-tell my family . -She'll think you fled.
Darex bonds
Worth 1200 crowns.
Special business, like foreign diplomats...
...while we sacrificed ourselves to build socialism...
...you lived like a bourgeois.
Leave that!
You number is 3225.
Do not forget it.
Walk!
You are not allowed to sit down! Not allowed to stay put! Walk!
Walk!
The Party is always right.
There's a misunderstanding. Everything will be cleared up. You must...
...submit to the rules to prove your good faith.
Stop walking, and we'll smash your face!
Walk!
The soup.
He's not entitled to it.
Walk!
Have you seen Gérard today?
Oh, he didn't go?
Have you seen Gérard today?
Oh, he didn't go?
Is Ossik there?
Thank you. Excuse me.
-This is a search. -What's this about?
What's this about? Not there. That's where the children sleep.
What is the meaning of this?
-We have orders to search. -Search?
I have a direct line with the Central Committee.
I shall call the Secretary General. Let's see what he says.
-Do you have a warrant? -We don't need one.
I've told you: we have orders to search.
I tell you: I won't let you.
Mother, go to bed.
Stay, madam.
He's my elderly son.
He was born in jail, in France, in La Roquette
-A jail in Paris -Why were you arrested?
Because in '42 the Germans arrested the communists.
I was sentenced to death. They didn't kill me because I was pregnant.
-Were you in jail for long? -I was deported to Ravensbrück.
My son is France's youngest political prisoner.
My husband was sent to Mathausen.
NN. Night and fog. Ever heard of it?
Those are photos of my husband in the Spanish Civil War and in...
...France, during the Resistance.
Please, my daughter is here. Put that away.
Hello dear.
-Where's daddy? -He'll be right back. These are friends from the Ministry.
-Did you have fun? Was dinner nice? -Yes.
Go to bed. It's late. Go see how the boys are sleeping.
Do you want coffee?
There you have it.
Search.
You act like Nazis. I didn't see the warrant.
They work as usual. Not a word.
-I want to speak with the minister. -At five o'clock in the morning?
After school we will go to the ministry.
Nothing important. They only took letters, photos, papers...
Fifteen years of marriage. Souvenirs from Spain...
Letters written in jail...
Gérard doesn't keep official documents at home.
We shall get this solved. You have a direct line. You can call me
Last night he had an appointment with Dr. Dymer. With his lung problems...
-... problems... -Of course. He shall see a doctor.
He is in isolation, as I said. For you and your family, nothing is changed.
The driver and the car from the ministry...
...are still at your service.
-Did you see the minister? -Yes. Gérard is not under arrest...
...he is just isolated with some comrades to clear up...
...some problems. They need his help.
Grave and confidential Party business.
It's best if they let him speak. I feared it was worse.
If you need anything, count on me.
He said nothing had changed.
Madame, I shall be taking care of you. This is your car.
But listen!
What's your complaint?
I want to see an officer from the Party.
-Identify yourself -The Vice-minister...
You are nothing! What's your number?
Your number!
You are number 3225. I shan't repeat it again.
Walk!
Put this on.
Don't stand still. Walk!
You are here to confess you crimes. Confess it all.
Confess what? Who are you?
February 1st. Confess your crimes! Confess who you are!
-Vice-minister of External Affairs -You are nothing.
You are only a number. Your number?
-Your number! -3225. Precise questions. What am I accused of?
You know it too well; better than anyone. What is your name?
-The Party knows... -Do not talk about the Party.
Ever. You are here to confess. You will confess.
-Get me the responsible... -Confess! - Ask precise...
-...questions! -Confess! -I want to see the person in charge.
I shall make you confess!
In the beginning, one tries to help the Party, try to understand...
...why one is there, what has one done. You are open...
...to self-criticism, to admit mistakes harmful...
...to the Party. Years of struggle and discipline and our education...
...have led us to believe the Party is never wrong.
-that the USSR was always right -We are not alone here.
-We have counsellors. -Many time we proudly said...
...that it was better to err...
...inside the Party than being right outside of it.
Confess your crimes! Confess it all!
But, confess what!? Make precise questions!
Eat!
Enough. Walk!
Enough. Stand! Walk!
Walk!
Stand!
Don't behave like the enemy. Obey!
Walk!
Please... Is it two AM or PM??
You are here for a very grave reason.
The Party ordered your arrest. We must interrogate you.
It's about international spying and betrayal...
...against the Soviet Union and our country.
Your duty is to help establish the truth.
You are not alone.
There are many other high-ranking officers implicated.
You can save yourself. You have been a member of the Party for a long time.
I appeal to you to help the Soviet Union and the Party.
Have you anything to say?
All I want is for the Party to clear all of this up.
I am willing to answer anything.
Very well. We shall start the interrogation.
Tuesday, February 4th... I declare...
Where and when did you start contacts with the American services...
...led by Allan Dulles? How did Noël Field recruit you?
Did you collaborate with other American spies apart from Field?
-Never! No one! -Shut up and answer!
Many heads will roll! We have evidence.
We shall use methods you cannot dream of!
You will confess! Your luck depends on you!
You either confess to save yourself...
...or you shall stay an enemy of the Soviet Union and the Party...
...until you die. Answer the question!
Enough! Hand on the plate!
Enough!
Keep walking
You may sleep now.
On your back, standard position.
Arms straight.
Stand up!
You may sleep!
Stand up!
Register number!
You may sleep.
Register number!
Stand up! Stand up!
Register number!
Obey the orders, sir!
You and your dirty race are all the same. The gas chambers...
...never finished their job.
You talk like that wearing the Party's symbol?
A traitor is going to lecture me? You want the Party...
...but it repels you. You are expelled!
You lie. It can't be. It's against regulations.
The statutes are very clear.
What a bourgeois conception of the Party's democracy.
The Central Committee can do whatever it wants.
Your cards: Yours, Valés'...
...and Zadovsky's, chief of security.
We know about your criminal activities in Spain and France.
Thanks to the counsellors. You are expelled from the Party. And we shall find...
-...the missing cards. -You are not the Committee.
No. We are above it.
We must find the traitors, including those in the Committee.
We incarnate proletarian power.
The friends you protect are here, and they are talking.
You shall do as them. You will answer the questions.
Like Zadovzky, who confessed it all.
He was chief of security.
He knew he could save himself if he confessed.
Zadovsky? Confess?
Confess what?
You went to a clandestine meeting the day before his arrest.
-What decisions were taken? -Did you organise the meeting?
You were the leader of the Trotskyist group in the International Brigades.
You knew you had been found out. What decisions were taken?
In Spain you let loose your Trotskyist ideas.
How did you organise your work? You sabotage work?
You met Rajk in Spain, did he put you in touch with the spies?
Rajk was discovered, tried and executed in Hungary.
-It shall happen to you. -What was the nature of your relation with Rwal and Winkler?
Why did you protect Dapchevitch in Spain?
The others confess. You will only save yourself if you do the same.
And if your are quicker and go further than they do.
Given that you were the one in charge.
Here we weed out the bad plants. We reap them.
Did you meet Rajk in Spain?
Did he put you in touch with the spies?
Bartons was also in Spain. What do you know of him?
-We know he deserted. - Jares was part of your unit. Do you remember?
Here is a report saying he had Trotskyist tendencies.
Like all your contacts, here and abroad.
They were the French and Italian communist parties.
Where does that report come from?
You must understand... We know it all.
With the experience and help of our Soviet comrades...
...we discovered the spy ring you lead.
Zadovsky confessed it all He described...
...the criminal activities of your Trotskyist group.
That is false. Zadovsky cannot have said that.
And this? Is it not his signature? All signed. Is it his or not?
-It cant' be. It cant' be. In Marseille? -Yes, maybe.
"My activities for the US services in Marseille..."
Do you not know his signature?
Zadovsky and the others tricked you.
You didn't know what you were getting into.
To prove your good faith, tell me what you know.
-Your confessions will help the Party. -I'm no spy.
You have a very subjective view of things.
Zadovsky, arrested immediately after you confessed at once.
And he is still doing it. He knows it's the only way out.
But this is all false. The French party and the resistance...
...have official documents. Verify my activities.
They are nothing next to these confessions. And the others...
...are confessing; the same story.
Believe me. Here everyone confesses.
You are the leader. You cannot escape.
Think of your family. What could happen to them.
Listen: "I spied for the USA to overthrow your regime...
In this activity I was directed by..."
Look. Your name. Black on white.
What can you do against that? Are you thirsty?
He accuses himself of the greatest crimes, under your direction.
Who will they believe in court?
You, who denies everything, or he, accusing himself?
-And he hasn't finished talking. -It's not true.
What matters is confessing. Why would Zadovsky...
...confess things that could cost him his head? To...
...save his life. He knows there's only one option: confessing.
I want to help the Party. But I have nothing to confess.
I do not allow you to mention the Party!
And don’t talk to him like that. He is not a comrade but a traitor. Go.
The Party abandons me; the friends, the comrades.
Nobody doubts my culpability I reacted the same way...
…during the Rajk trails. What communist wouldn’t be appalled?
How to even conceive that a Party which one hols infallible,
...can force innocents to confess?
We shall do everything we to reveal your treason to the Party and the people.
Zadovsky knew of the contacts with the American spy.
He hid because you knew about his contacts with the Gestapo.
Your friend Valés confesses...
...to have collaborated with the British police.
You are Jewish, but you didn't die at a concentration camp.
-Why? -Because you collaborated with the Gestapo.
The spy Dulles got to the Gestapo list. That's how you were recruited.
Walk.
Every day we make a report about the conduct and cooperation...
...of the prisoners.
-Number 3225. Present. -Louder!
Number 3225. Present.
What did you do? Why are you here?
I don't know. They don't let me sleep.
I'm innocent.
Wait.
They gave orders about you. You are a special case.
Don't tell anyone or they will punish me.
I want to see an officer from the Party.
Confess to a crime.
I haven't slept or eaten or drunk for ten days.
Let an officer ask me questions and I shall answer.
You haven't slept or eaten? I'll look into that.
The guards do what they want.
Ready. Holdos is here. Your group is complete.
All the veterans from Spain. Here, as in Hungary...
...Poland and Germany. This concerns all the International Brigades.
Those are the questions they asked Rajk in his trial.
It seems like you studied his trial.
Each or Rajk's confessions uncovered more.
But you used your knowledge to hide better.
We shall do as the Hungarians who liquidated Rajk.
This is the resolution that proposes the condemnation...
... of the spy and traitor Laszio Rajk, unmasked...
...by our Hungarian comrades. Whoever...
... agrees, let he raise his hand.
There are many veterans from Spain in this trial.
-Not all of us were good in Spain. -I hope the tree...
...doesn't hide the forest.
Good. Let's carry on.
"In my work I committed some faults...
...for carelessness.
I made contacts with Kohnova, Vesela, Pavlik and Feigl...
...all condemned by links with the spy Field"
Vesela was not condemned. He committed suicide during the trial.
Well, not Vesela. "I accepted for my clandestine work...
...money from the American imperialists".
That's all. Sign.
Isn't it better like that? Now you may sleep.
I was unconscious. I deny what I said.
-I was extorted -What? -Yes, physically.
Do you think that was a confession?
It's not even self-criticism.
I'll see how you will end up signing. Let's start again.
You will talk! Otherwise, we shall let this business die!
Go. First your life's story. Walk.
Walk!
Tell me your life's story. From the beginning.
When were you born?
-When were you born?! - February 11, 1915 in Ostrava.
-My father was a rail worker. -Why did they call you Gérard?
That was my nickname in the French Resistance.
Resistance in a foreign country?
You are a Jew and a communist. The Gestapo got to you...
...and you escaped. How suspicious. Go on.
My son was born in jail. He's called Gérard because his mother...
... didn't know if we'd meet again.
Do not try to move me. Continue!
My father was the 5th of 8 children of a Moravian rail worker...
... during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Afterwards he went to Switzerland.
At the turn of the century he went to the United States.
He soon learned English.
He recited poems from Whitman, pages of Paine or Jefferson.
In New York he met my mother, another émigré.
They went back to their country together. He was a stretcher-bearer during the war.
In touch with Russian prisoners...
...he meets Bolshevik elements.
He was the first to talk to me about Rosa Luxemburg
About the Spartakists, Lenin, the Cantonese commune.
He made me read Heinrich Heine.
My father showed me the way to the Communist Youth.
In 1930 we wanted to blow up the Ostrava town hall.
Did you do it or not?
Last night you said otherwise to my colleague.
No. We were fifteen. We just sought attention.
We dreamt with blowing it up.
Dreamt? This morning you've told me otherwise.
Three versions: one in the morning, another in the afternoon, and yet another at night.
Start again, let's see if there's a fourth. I'm listening.
I was born in Ostrava the 11th of February...
You said your friend Wagner disappeared in Moscow in...
...1935, before your trip to Spain. The other day you said...
...that you knew nothing about him. Which version am I to believe? Again.
I met Wagner in Moscow. He was coming back from China...
No! From the beginning. When were you born?
Go on, go on... Your father made you read Heinrich Heine?
What else?
Heinrich Heine.
My father showed me the way to the Communist Youth.
The Sacco-Vanzetti case interested you.
I marched with him through the streets of Ostrava.
I respected the physical courage of Bakunin...
...and had consideration for Kropotkin.
I knew all his writings.
But I didn't share in the fundamental ideology...
...of the anarchists.
Old member of the socialist faction, he was one of the...
... founders of the city's Communist Party.
Boycotted by the good society and the Jewish community...
...who considered him a traitor for being an atheist...
...and being a member of anti-religious organisations...
...it was hard for him to find a job.
His family didn't help him either.
Apart from his uncle Sigmund, who lectured him.
I last saw my father in the summer of 1935, in Moscow.
He was very old. He was organising...
...a trip here... with some of the people...
...who were with him.
He wanted to meet my wife.
He was interested by everything.
Sometimes he asked questions...
...I wasn't capable of answering.
I couldn't answer them.
He didn't like everything in Moscow
He couldn't understand some things.
But he had fulfilled his dream:...
...of seeing the Red Square and Lenin in his mausoleum,
When I left, he was sad.
He asked when would we see each other again.
I never saw him again.
Not him, not my mother, or my brother Jean.
Nor my sister Juliette. They all died in the camps.
We are in a 4x5 room.
A greenish grey wardrobe and a typewriter.
An empty beer mug and a cup of coffee... bread...
Dirty traitor! Out!
We'll talk later. Let's go. Finish this.
Bastard... Trotskyist bandit...
You started your dirty job in Moscow.
Come on.
They are going to hang me.
Talk or we'll finish you!
They'll make me disappear, like Wagner in Moscow.
They took my Party card. They call me Trotskyist.
They will say I committed suicide for having too many regrets.
He committed suicide. He couldn't face his crimes.
You are lucky. But you might end up hanging.
And our people shall have revenge.
If the orders come from who I think; it could be dangerous.
The comrades want you alive for the trial.
I gave the Soviet security counsellors...
...the statute and advantage of the diplomatic corps.
They are policemen. Not diplomats.
We make good use of their experience in Moscow.
The presence of the counsellors seemed natural to us.
It came from the principle of technical and economic aid...
...of the USSR to socialist countries.
The process will be in August. You have 5 months to confess.
In Moscow Radek had 3 months. As you can see, we have a good margin.
Comrades are disappearing. There's going to be a big trial.
Confess soon or I shall judge you with 20 witnesses, to make you hang.
They made me write down my biography.
They found a difference in a small detail I had forgotten.
Confess you are a Trotskyist! Confess it!
In Moscow, in '36, I had contacts...
...with Trotskyist spies.
You went to Spain so that they didn't discover you.
Wagner had been in the Komintern for years.
-He came to see me in the hotel on Gorky Street -That's why I forgot.
...they examined my biographies.
They took my papers, my card, my job, the hotel...
It can't be. Stalin can't know about this. He couldn't.
Ready, boss. He started confessing.
Look into his declarations.
...impressive. He's started.
One sentence obsessed me:...
"The individual become guilty...
"...not because he is, but because he believes he is."
Look, what a beautiful statement.
"This is what I have to say about the activities of the...
...Trotskyist group of the Brigades' veterans".
From this we can start working. It's your friend Tonda.
The Party decides, it clears up every misunderstanding.
Trotskyist group! Your friend knew!
Over three weeks without sleep or food.
He is talking. He confesses to it all.
-He didn't sign. -It's a copy!
Like our friends did, we have to get to...
...the definition of a: "Trotskyist Spy Organization":
That's what he must sign.
You will sign, too, given that you are the leader.
The comrades at the Party will not stand for this.
What did you do when thousands were disappearing?
You are delirious.
What would you do in my place?
-Confess! -Confess what? That I am a spy?
What would you do in my place, Gérard?
Leave him. He's exhausted.
Stalin taught that man is the most precious capital.
If he drowns, take him out of the water.
Comma.
Listen to Smola say: "Leave him. We'll carry on soon."
They let me fall on the floor and I had a wonderful vision.
I'm in Monte Carlo, where I never was...
...in a very beautiful beach.
The first thing I did when I got to France...
...was to come and see this place.
And the doctors advised me to do it; the weather is good for my lungs.
-You have to speak out, Gerard. -Of what?
-All this. You have to make it known. -To who?
Write a book. I know publishers.
-Write for who? -For us.
The communists cannot understand these truths.
They will say you have to wash your dirty linen inside the family, that I...
...am playing the enemy's game. They will even say...
...it was smoke without fire. There was no Party spirit
It's too soon, objectively.
Even so, you should write the book.
The people from these trials...
...are still in power. They wouldn't admit such testimonies
-Publish it here, in French. -No. First it has to be there.
The book must arise from the situation.
-Are we going to remain silent? -Jean, I owe nothing to anyone.
-It's a juncture problem. -Precisely. And who...
...will speak for the dead?
And for us? Who spoke for us in '52? You?
Do you remember what you said during the trials?
We were rabid dogs, Titoist cosmopolitan spies...
...Trotskyist bandits. All my activity in France...
...the Party knew it. But no one spoke out. What did you do?
-Nothing. -Why? -They would have expelled me.
Yes, sure. But did you think them guilty or not?
There wasn't sufficient information.
We knew about it in the 20th Congress, in 1956
You read the bourgeois press and you saw that the trials...
...were a farce. But you lived in the world...
...History doesn't add anything to it, apart from details, the mechanism...
...of this hell. But its existence was well-known.
A senator at the time wrote: "The trials of...
...Prague remind us that hell has its own logic".
The same person justified the war in Indochina.
And Algeria's, which provoked a million dead.
Well, all this explains "how". What about "why"?
Stalin eliminated the best, the most brilliant.
Stalin, who wasn't alone was a former seminarian.
The public confession, the sinner's humiliation...
Plus he was infallible.
In '49, the Cold War. The popular democracies...
...aren't solid. The come from the Soviet military victory...
...and not from Revolutions.
There are grave economical and social problems. Stalin...
...distrusts the independent socialist powers.
He distrusts Tito, who refuses to imitate the Russian model.
Tito is proclaimed to be an imperialist agent.
Titoist is synonymous with spy.
The same was done with the word "Trotskyist".
-And? -After the Rajk trial in Hungary...
...the Party accepted receiving the Soviet counsellors.
It considered it to be a show of confidence.
They are a specific work group, under...
...the direction of our comrade counsellors.
We only respond to them, the President of the Republic...
...and the Secretary General of the Party.
No special instance of the Party can control this activity.
After a month I was transferred again. It was at the end...
...of February. No, these cars were more recent.
In '51 it was the Tatraplan with the back flap.
Finding myself in a normal jail gave me hope.
You may sleep.
If you saw yourself, you'd be scared.
Today is March 6. He has refused to collaborate for the past 35 days.
The Party knows about your negative attitude.
Let's start from the beginning.
-I shall answer under the condition... -What condition?
Your neck is on the line! You have only one responsibility:...
...Confess it all!
Take him. Prepare him for the interrogation.
You may sleep for 4 hours.
Undress. Standard position!
You must admit your culpability. As a member of the Party...
...you must submit to trial.
If I am a Trotskyist spy, why appeal...
...to my feelings as a disciplined communist?
And if I am a good communist, what am I doing here?
My commander. The telephone.
Watch him.
Is he the one from the corridor?
-He must be exhausted. -It's hard, but he saved himself.
And what will happen to me?
You will work 4 or 5 years in a far, to forget it all.
Zadovsky was executed in 1954 after the rest.
We received a letter from your wife.
"It's not easy to keep a family, of course..."
"... but I get by with the help from the Party"
She has the right spirit... She has repudiated you.
Are you surprised? It's not the first time.
One of your friends confessed that she was his lover.
Bastard!
It's all here!
Imbecile!
A good lot your Trotskyist friends.
I know that she is French... But him!
They were found in his office.
She was resting on his shoulder.
"In this case, did you intimate with her?"
Answer: "I did not intimate, we were just very friendly"
Question: "Was she resting on your shoulder?"
Answer: "Yes"
"According to the dictionary, that means intimating"
Answer: "Fine, then we were intimating." He confessed she was his lover.
Who dreamt all of this?
Guess!
What matters is...
... she has repudiated you and put herself at the disposal of the Party
-New information? -Like every day.
We have to speed up. Send me the information on Gérard.
And? What is happening with my husband?
You wrote many letters.
The comrades cannot spend their lives reading your letters.
The secretary asked me to see you. What do you want?
Know what is of him. It's been 2 months.
It seems to me that he is very compromised.
Al this concerns him.
Is he under arrest or not?
If he is, I have the right to know it, and why.
-I'm his wife and a member of the Party. -He hasn't been found guilty.
But some shady business have to be cleared up.
His life is transparent. I've been sharing it for the past 16 years.
You know nothing. One day something is discovered and things get complicated.
-It's not the case with Gérard. -You say that because you love him.
There have always been traitors, provocateurs, policemen...
in the workers' movement. Their wives never discover them.
In '41 in your party...
...they had to get rid of your secretary of organisation.
-Are you talking about Gitton? -Gitton.
He had been a police informer for years.
The secretary of organisation...
Wasn't he behaving strangely lately?
Didn't he leave you, come back late?
Did the Party arrest him for his private life?
To teach him moral?
I have said he has not been found guilty.
You should go back to France with your family.
Oh yes? Should I be the first to condemn him?
Why should I do it? Let he talk to me.
Your life won't be easy here.
It's my duty to tell you that you have to leave the radio.
Why? The direction has nominated me...
...the best journalist in French programmes.
It doesn't matter. You can no longer work at official services.
-You can go to a factory. -Is this punishment?
An irritating appreciation for the working class,...
-... it being in power. -It's not me who decides.
In the Soviet Union this is how these matters are dealt with.
Mom, they are taking the things away. I couldn't stop them.
What are they doing?
Dad, your paper.
-What is the meaning of this? -Minister's orders.
-You must vacate the house. You'll be given another. -Where?
It's here.
It could be worse. You can put the children here.
-Who is this lady? -A friend.
Her brother is with daddy. We are going to work together.
His brother is in jail with daddy?
-Who told you that? -Everyone says it at school.
-Are you Londonova? -Yes. Do you know my husband?
I heard of him. Some comrades where with him.
I'm looking for work. I need it urgently. I don't know how to do anything.
It doesn't matter. We we'll teach you. And you?
I found a place at Autorenova.
Good. Right next door. You'll be neighbours.
If you want you can start at the end of the month.
I'd like to. Thanks.
-We'd like to be together. -If it was possible.
I'll see what we can do.
Come. Let's go!
-They left because of me -No, no...
Yes, they did... I'm used to it.
Did you see? They arrested the Secretary General of the Party.
I wonder where will they stop. I wrote him about Gérard.
-He never got the letter. -Now it's over.
With this arrest, everything will be cleared.
-What did your paper say? -That he is responsible of the arrests.
Gérard's included.
To hide his nefarious economic policies...
...he set out on a purge of those who were against them.
I know them... If you knew how they persecuted me...
You'll see. Gérard will be freed soon.
He was the chief redactor of the Party's paper.
Weeks later, he was arrested, confessed and was...
...one of the 14 accused of conspiracy against the State,
...condemned and executed.
There he is.
I wish you much pleasure.
Sit down.
Sit down, sit down.
In 6 months you have worn out 12 inquisitors...
... you ended up even irritating the commander.
But don't worry. It doesn't matter.
We shall start from the beginning.
We have many more men, and more importantly, a lot of time.
All that's necessary for you to confess everything.
One year or more, if it's necessary.
I have 5 months to make you confess. I'm not in a rush.
You can't imagine the fun that awaits you.
Put this on.
Stand up.
Walk.
I later learned that Kohoutek, in the old day and during...
...the Nazi occupation, had been a police commissary,...
...in charge of the anticommunist repression.
"I established contact with Noel Field in Geneva in 1947".
-Sign, please. -The Party knows. I wrote a report.
Finish it. Sign.
The Party knows it very well.
"For these contacts..."
"... Noel Field paid me the sum of..."
How much was it?
Not "for these contacts" but "during these contacts"
It was to pay for sanitary costs. The Party knew and authorised it.
Who said otherwise? How much were you given?
I can't remember... It was five years ago.
I caught tuberculosis at the concentration camp.
The Party knew of Field's health service for deportees.
Go on.
How much did Field give you?
300 Swiss Francs? More? Less?
-More -How much?
Double, or more.
Face the wall. You said 800 Francs?
Now we are getting to the facts. That's what I want.
"In 1947..."
Come closer.
"Noel Field paid me the sum..."
"... of 800 Swiss Francs"
Sign, please.
- But the Party knows... - Go on.
Szony, condemned to death at the Rajk trial, received only 300 Francs.
- But mine... - ... were for sanitary expenses.
Nobody is saying otherwise.
"In 1947, in Switzerland... "
"... I was in touch with the American spy, Noel Field"
Sign here.
No, in 1947 I didn't know that Field was a spy.
Is Noel Field an American spy?
Did the Rajk trial not establish that Field was an American spy?
This resolution voted for the Party condemns the traitor Rajk
Did you sign this resolution?
-To cover yourself up... -No!
Did the Rajk trial not establish that Field was a spy in 1947?
Yes but, in 1947, we did not know he was a spy.
Let's say that in 1947 you were in touch with...
... a spy unmasked in 1949?
Say it then.
"In 1947, in Switzerland...
"... I was in touch with the American spy, Noel Field"
Yes, but in 1947 I could not know what was to be discovered in '49.
No one could anticipate in 1947 that Field was a spy.
Well...
Let us consider each fact objectively.
Later we shall consider the subjective aspect.
Noel Field was an American spy. You were in touch with him.
I did it because...
-What kind of contact did you have? -I did it because...
Spying... Espionage contacts.
-Really, no. -Admit it.
No, I was sick and had no money, so I got in touch...
... with Field's health service.
I am not a social worker.
How did you establish your spy contacts with Field?
It wasn't spying.
You signed these declarations.
"In 1947, in Switzerland...
"... I was in touch with the American spy, Noel Field"
"In 1947, Noel Field paid me the sum of 800 Swiss Francs".
Consider the facts.
Why would an American spy pay for the expenses of a communist officer?
We are just listing the facts, I repeat:...
The subjective aspects...
... will be dealt with later.
Ready.
"In 1947 I got in touch with Noel Field. As he was a spy..."
I resumed it in the most favourable way for you.
"and as I was in touch with him, I am...
...objectively guilty of spying contacts.
In that moment, Field gave me 800 Swiss francs".
Ready. If you would sign... I have taken out the subjective appreciations.
Excuse me.
Here, too. For the translation.
For the comrades counsellors.
Ah, I almost forgot...
I have a letter from your wife for you.
After you can sleep for a while.
Standard position.
Sit down. The chief forgot to make you sign this.
"Given that the veterans of the Brigades recognise being...
...Trotskyists and traitors, being responsible for them...
...puts me at the same level, objectively". Sign.
Afterwards you can write to your family.
"In the Communist Youth I had already worked...
...under the direction of Smirkovsky...
... whose Trotskyist past...
... is well-known".
-I never said that. -Didn't you work with Smirkovsky?
Yes, but I never said that he was Trotskyist.
He said it himself.
-Do you know his signature? -No.
It's his. It only reasserts his confession.
We are convinced he was a Trotskyist...
-...before going to Spain. -Where did you get from?
Tipee. In 1936, you brought Wagner, a Trotskyist ...
... expelled from the Party to your hotel in Moscow.
You were sceptical about the Moscow trials.
I have to include something in this questions. Come closer.
"In Moscow, I lived in a hotel full of Trotskyists".
How will the President of the Republic...
... and the Secretary General.
They lived in the same hotel.
Precisely. The former Secretary General of the Party...
...is here.
Do not build your hopes up. It's no excuse. To the contrary. It proves...
...that they appointed you to important posts...
...to take the power in benefit of the American imperialists.
-Is it you who says that? -No, he will say it.
And you will confirm it. You already started saying it.
I will never sign any of this.
Yes, you will. Like all the others.
Do you think the Party arrested the Secretary lightly?
The secretary wrote the British Zilliacus. His...
...letters went by diplomatic bag, through your...
...services. How many letters?
-Zilliacus is from the peace movement. -He was an agent...
...of the Intelligence Service.
Add: "I declare having received and sent..."
-How many letters? Four, five? -No, two.
Five.
I'm going to translation. You sign later.
Put these on.
And walk. Walk!
Traducido. Puede firmar. Ahí tiene.
After you can go to sleep.
-Wait. It's not the same. -It's a copy.
-No it's not. -It is, you are tired.
-No, it's not a copy. -Yes, it is.
You may sleep.
According to declarations you signed, and to testimonies...
...you denounced the Clandestine Central Committee to the Gestapo...
...thus indirectly provoking the execution of Fucik.
Testimonies? What is this dirty game?
"I organised the return of Klecan by procuring him documents".
You say that Klecan was in your Trotskyist group and...
...recognise yourself responsible for them.
-I followed instructions... -Sit down.
I followed instructions. Klecan was in France. We took him...
out of jail and got him false papers...
-...so that he could come back. -Klecan denounced Fulk and...
...the Clandestine Central Committee to the Gestapo?
-Klecan didn't talk. -Were you present?
-It was said... -There is no proof, your Trotskyist group says that...
...you ordered Klecan to denounce the Central Committee.
-But Klecan... -Don't argue. We have testimonies.
And what about the Clandestine Central Committee?
I put in the interrogation of Rejistin, who already signed it
Well, put this on.
"In Spain I had more esteem for the anarchist leaders...
-...than for those of the Party". -I won't sign that.
In Spain I admired leaders...
...such as La Pasionaria, Durruti.
Walk.
Walk, I said!
We've been stuck with this for days.
I had to delay my trip.
-Given to your anarchist activities. -I never had...
-...anarchist activities. -Yes
You wanted to blow up the town hall.
I was 15.
The age were tendencies are crystallised. Moreover,...
it's a formality. The cuffs. We cannot try you for that.
It's just an administrative question.
The Party can condemn you severely with...
...little material or lightly, with a lot.
All you have left is to surrender completely to the Party.
Good. Now I can go on holiday. Don't spoil it.
"In Albacete, at the HQ of the Brigades...
-...I met the Titoist Dapchevitch". -No.
I'm reading from your previous declarations.
Not only did I meet Dapchevitch But also Luigi Longo,...
-...Paglietta, Martí... -Face the wall!
-We haven't got there, yet. -I never said the word "Titoist"
It's not a word, it's a political qualification that...
...defines our enemies.
In '37 in Spain there were Yugoslav communists...
-...not Titoists. -And you got to Vice minister? You ignore...
...the basis of dialectics. You must judge the past in...
...the light of the current truths of the Party.
Do you know what Titoism is? Say it, sir, say it!
I approved the denunciation of Titoism.
Do not talk about your approval! Dapchevitch is a Titoist.
He is a Minister of Tito's.
Are you waiting for daylight? You won't sleep before you sign.
-Good day. -How were your holidays?
-They did me good. -Great, here we are still the same.
Still bothering. No wonder he is Jewish.
All right? You did well in telling your wife...
...to go back to France. It's the best she can do.
Did you see her?
Did she not write you?
Sit down, sit down.
The leadership of the Party has asked for and interrogation...
...that synthesises all this and reflects your activities.
The counsellors prepared the project to win time.
-But... will they hang me? -No, no way.
The interrogation won't go to court. It's internal.
Your co-accused have already signed theirs.
-Believe me. They are much graver. -"In 1947,...
...I got in touch with Field, the well-known...
...American agent, in return for the information I gave him...
...he gave me 800 Swiss Francs". In return for what information?
But that is impossible!
The Party approved the way this was put.
Do like him. Show yourself to be a good communist.
-I won't sign that I am a Trotskyist spy -You are still a communist.
For that, you won't assume your mistakes.
confessions are the highest form of self-criticism.
Self-criticism is the main virtue of communists.
They ask for corrections.
Your friend Hadju, replace Trotskyist for Zionist.
It's Jew, not Zionist.
We are in a popular democracy. "Jew" is an insult.
-Let's leave "Zionist". -It's a political qualification.
In the USSR it's forbidden. They use "Hebrew".
Put "Hebrew". Zionist is not the same.
"Hebrew" doesn't sound well. "Zionist" It's the order.
Let's go on. Wait.
This is the paper of the accusation.
Afterwards we shall write de the defence, dictated by yourself
There was never a defence paper.
After hearing "Trotskyist", "Titoist", "nationalist", "bourgeois"...
for so long, words start losing meaning. If you asked me to write...
..."My Trotskyist son Michel is one", I would have signed.
I had only one way out: suicide. I attempted it. Twice.
And yet you're still a communist. I can't understand it. It's a faith.
They are believers who dislike the church.
Which one? There are many. God is already dead.
-Today we can be communists. -And what happened to Field?
In '55 he reappeared in Hungary.
They freed and rehabilitated him.
He's still there. Didn't want to come back West.
But what was him? An American agent? A Russian one?
-Maybe one day he writes about. -But why did they choose him?
Soon after the Spanish Civil War he directed a service...
... of aid to refugees in Marseille and Geneva.
He met many communists in Central Europe. He helped them.
And he was still in touch with Alan Dulle, who directed an American...
...information network in Switzerland. It's not simple.
In the war against Hitler, the USSR and the USA were allies.
Then when the Cold War came the US fired Field because...
...he knew too many communists.
And the Soviets made him look like he was an American agent.
It's your twentieth month of interrogations.
Learn this by heart: questions and answers.
Take it.
Put your blindfold on.
Question: "Did you confess to directing...
...a plot against the State?"
"Yes, I did not hide anything. Not during the proceeding...
...nor before the Court. I admit to my participation...
...in the centre of the conspiracy against the State..."
Speak your text when he finished talking.
Just like we rehearsed.
-Good. There you are. -You know your text. -Take that off.
He doesn't look good. How often does he sunbathe?
-Never, for the past 21 months. -What do you mean, never?
At least it's nearly over.
It wasn't always easy. Put it on.
Now you'll face your leader and accomplices. Come.
The Party asked for a report on your behaviour.
Take the blindfold off.
Sit down.
I travelled often to the Popular Democracies...
...and had contacts with Domoulka in Poland...
...and in Yugoslavia with Tito and his fascists.
...in Hungary with Rajk, in Bulgaria with Kosto.
We ended up meeting, all fallen into the same trap.
The Secretary General, who ordered the first arrests...
...and the Security Minister, who prepared the process...
...with the Soviet counsellors.
I build the nucleus of the conspiracy against the State...
...with many enemies.
Later I found out the Secretary General had attempted suicide...
...hurling himself against the wall.
To avoid it they padded his cell.
Another time, being alone, he tried to hang himself.
They threw down the door just in time.
His saviour was given a medal for the feat.
...men who lived in the West before and during...
...the war. That's how I introduced in the General Secretariat...
...the bourgeois nationalist Bederich Geminder, in...
...Security, J. Pavel and Karel Svab, in Foreign...
...affairs the Vice-minister...
Why do this here? Nobody will know.
The Party asked for a report on your behaviour.
-If you confess, then there's a closed-doors trial -You must...
...survive. You'll tell the truth.
You signed all this.
I was part of a conspiracy against the State...
...directed by the Secretary General of the Party.
I was responsible for a Trotskyist group in the Ministry...
...of Foreign Affairs...
You did well to stick to the text.
That's what you should do in the public trial.
The Secretary General wants to limit your role to the ideological...
...direction of the group...
In Moscow, Bukharin did the same, but it cost him his head.
Well... Now we have to learn from all this.
Don't worry. It'll be there.
Solicitor: "How many espionage letters...
...did you take to Zilliacus?"
Answer...
...Two, maybe five... I didn't keep account.
Solicitor: "be more precise. Ten letters have been mentioned"
Answer...
Maybe there were ten.
Your injection.
It's calcium.
Warms you up, right?
You are as white as chalk.
We'll have to fix that.
Guided by my bourgeois instinct to have a career...
No.
Guided by my bourgeois instinct to have a career...
No. "Selfish". "Bourgeois and selfish".
"Guided by my bourgeois and selfish instinct...
...to have a career and assure my welfare...
...being in the West I became cosmopolitan...
-... and joined the ranks of the bourgeoisie". -That's it. Good.
No. It's not good at all. The text is good.
But no-one will believe you are guilty if you speak like that.
You're lucky I'm here.
You're not the main accused. The injection?
-Yes, only five to go. -Good. It gives him colour.
Take that off.
Dr. Novak, President of the State Tribunal.
-Have you ever been convicted? -Yes, twice.
In the years '31, '32. And in Paris in 1942.
-For what reasons? -The first, for communist activities
The second, for participating in the struggle against the Nazis.
There's no need to write that down. Do you have a lawyer?
-No. and I don't want one. -The law obliges you.
The State shall provide you with one.
Dr. Ruzick, your lawyer.
Despite the gravity of your case, the State takes good care of you.
-Spoils you. -It fattens me. Like a goose.
-What? -You were saying...? My case is grave?
You risk capital punishment, which is what you deserve.
Which is contemplated by the law.
You will only receive a lighter sentence...
...if you plead guilty and behave well.
"What was your role in the conspiracy?"
"I recognize that I established spy contacts as a member of...
the conspiracy of the Secretary General...
...with the British agent Zilliacus and that I used the diplomatic mail...
...at the Ministry. Moreover I was in touch with the American spy Noel...
...Field and I gave him secret information"
I have spoken with the attorney.
-And? -He believes your case is the least grave.
Fifteen years top. I told you: it's your only chance.
Behave well. If you don't, your family will suffer.
The security minister wanted to see you.
In the name of the Party and the President of the Republic
...I appeal to you to stick to the Tribunal's record.
You would be doing a great favour to the Party.
The situation is dire. There is risk of war.
The Party hopes you are guided by its interests.
That would be taken into account. Don't forget who protects your family.
It won't suffer the consequences of this trial.
The night before the trial they brought me a new suit from home
Don't forget the tie
-These? -Yes
-Is he going to be let out soon? -I don't know, madam
Is he coming home?
They took away my brother's things as well. Maybe they will come back tonight
To school, boys
Later we found out the ones in charge...
...of getting rid of the ashes of the executed,...
...found their way blocked by snow...
...and decided to spill them on the roadside. The drivers joked.
First time I take 14 people in my Tatraplan.
Us 3 and 11 more in the bag.
The session is open. I speak to the defendants.
Was the time contemplated by the law respected for the viewing before a court?
-Yes
Carry on with the reading of the accusations and...
...the unfolding of the debates. Make use of your right...
...to express your opinion. I remind you that you may...
...defend yourselves as you see fit.
I give the word to the comrade General Attorney.
The investigation of the Ministry of Security...
...establishes that the North American imperialists,
...assuring their control over the world, just after the II World War,
organized a conspiracy against the peace of the peoples.
In the popular democracies the created clandestine centres...
...with corrupted elements. I accuse you all of being traitors...
...Trotskyists, Titoists, Zionists...
...bourgeois nationalists and enemies of the people...
...for creating a conspiracy nucleus subject...
... to the American Imperialists, directed...
...by western information agencies...
...to break up the people's alliance and friendship...
...to the Soviet Union, to overthrow the regime...
...to halt the building of Socialism...
...and restore capitalism.
Even though the conspirators and their boss may have...
...risen to important positions in the Party and the State...
... they did not manage, like Tito in Yugoslavia, to take the power...
...nor reach their criminal goal. Thanks to our loyalty...
...to the Soviet Union, the conspiracy was defeated.
For that, the accused:...
...Ex-Secretary General of the Party, of Jewish origin...
...ex-Head of Foreign Affairs of the Party...
...of Jewish origin...
...ex-Head of Economy, of Jewish origin...
...Ex-Junior Secretary General of the Party, Czech...
...ex-Minister Foreign Affairs, Slovak...
...ex-Vice minister of National Defence, of Jewish origin...
ex-Vice minister of Security, Czech, of Jewish origin...
...the two Vice ministers of Foreign Affairs...
...of Jewish origin...
...the two Vice ministers of Foreign Trade.
...of Jewish origin...
ex-Vice minister of Finance, of Jewish origin...
...Ex-Secretary of the Regional Committee of the Party, Jewish...
...ex-Chief of staff of the Party's newspaper, Jewish...
I accuse you all of...
During the 3 hours that the accusations lasted...
...an absolute silence reigns in the room.
They film us. We shall be the spectacle of dark rooms.
Session adjourned.
Stay sat.
Cigarettes.
Everything ok?
Cigarettes?
Take a drag.
-It's a political process. We don't need deaths. -Open...
...your mouth. They are vitamins. Swallow.
Do you need anything?
The President of the Republic wishes everything to go smoothly.
It depends on you.
-Everything ok? -Yes
I have news.
There will be no capital punishment. The party does not want heads...
...just a high-level political trial.
If there are 1 or 2 death sentences they will be a mere formality.
If anyone tries anything before the court...
their microphone will be turned off and they won't be heard.
And in will come the witnesses.
It's mine.
The session is open.
We continue with the live transmission of the...
...trial of the conspiracy cell against the State.
You will listen to the declarations of the former Vice minister of Security.
The American spy Field...
...uncovered by the trials in Hungary...
...who had created a spy ring in our country.
How did you keep this secret?
As we could no suppress his declaration, I ordered...
...that the investigation be carried out formally.
I told the accused to prepare their defence.
Here there is a change of text. Warn him.
You're next. Let's go through it again.
-I know it... -Come on.
"What led you to work as an enemy of the Republic?"
I grew up in a bourgeois family, without contact with the working masses...
-Do you want an interpreter? -No.
-Do you understand the questions and believe yourself able to answer? -Yes
-What school did you go to? -The German School in Ostrava.
-What language do you know best? -German.
-How well do you know it? -I haven't spoken it for a long time.
In reality you don't know any language well.
Typical cosmopolitan.
What was your attitude towards the working people?
It was...
It was insensible.
Did you understand the question?
What was your attitude towards the working people?
I felt indifference for the interests of the working class.
I was never...
I felt indifference for the interests of the working people.
I was never attached to the people.
To me their interests were always foreign.
Are you ready for your turn?
Remember. Everything depends on your attitude.
I was brought up in a bourgeois background.
The working masses were always completely alien to me.
And I let myself be driven by my burgeois instincts.
Burgeois and selfish.
They drove my career and my personal life.
The eleven years I spent in the West changed me.
In those days I became cosmopolitan and passed to the burgeois field.
I confess to being guilty of integrating, since 1948 and to the day of my arrest,...
...the core of a conspiracy against the State.
I recognise fully my culpability due to being...
Listen mom, the man who speaks in the radio is dad, isn't he?
No, dear, no.
You go to bed, as well.
...and of spying with the English agent, Zilliacus...
...and of having utilized for those purposes the diplomatic mail of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs...
...also of having a spying contact with the American agent, Noel Field...
...to whom I passed information.
My wife wrote the President of the Republic to...
...express her desperation before my confessions.
We shall read the letter of Londonova, wife...
...of a traitor judged by a State court,...
...sent to the President of the Republic.
To president Gottwald: Soon after the arrest of my husband...
...with all the elements I shared in his life, his activity...
...I believed he was a victim of traitors...
that hid their criminal activities inside the Party.
After reading the accusations and the confessions,
...my hopes faded: my husband was no victim...
...but a traitor of his Party and country.
My sorrow is great. I'm human.
But as a communist...
...it gladdens me, for the people's interest and peace, that...
...the conspiracy cell has been discovered, I am with...
...honest people in claiming...
...a fair punishment for those under trial.
Ever since I don't drive to the factory I go earlier.
It's my fault. If you haven’t'...
No. I'm not from a worker background...
...and I was in the West during the war.
Listen: I make you no reproaches. I know you are sincere.
But that letter was a mistake.
I wrote it to the President, not the radio.
-But you heard him. He plead guilty. -I heard too much.
The testimonies, the accusations, the confessions...
It's all false. They learned it by heart.
Why would they do a trial if it wasn't true?
-There are precedents... -Precisely. In the debates...
...there are bouts of anti-Semitism. It's unacceptable.
Heroes become traitors. I don't understand.
I don't agree. I shall leave the Party.
Do you know what could happen?
Why would a man like him confess?
He will tell us.
I hope one day he tells us.
When I heard the accusations, I rethought...
...the activities of Reising during the occupation.
I came to the conclusion that he denounced Julius Fucik...
...and the Clandestine Central Committee to the Gestapo.
The story of the CCC? Forget that.
We put it in Reising's confession. He signed it.
I'd like to read you the last words of Fucik.
"He who lived for the future and who fell for its beauty...
...is a figure cast in stone.
He who wanted, with the dust of the past, to build a barricade...
...against the revolution, is rotten wood...
...though his shoulders may be covered in stripes.
Men, I loved you so much... Be careful!"
The declaration of Fucikova, Widow of the resistance hero...
...left an impression that the judges will not forget easily...
Before, the chief of the conspiracy declared...
..."Our conspiracy cell against the state...
had hundreds of members - the judges will have a lot of work".
I'm going. I'll go on, comrade. Three simple benches are won...
...under the weight of the crimes of these treacherous vampires.
The citizens should see the boss.
His pink face, his thick Judas eyebrows.
The weight of his crimes have buried him underneath them.
He's a dead man. To a dog, a dog's death.
The session begins.
In 1939, I established a spy ring in London.
-Who with? -Emmanuel Troska, American agent.
I gave him information on the Communist Party...
-...and its aims in England. -Go on.
Moreover, I confess I made contacts with agent Hanz...
of the Intelligence service. He summoned me in December '44...
...to an interview at the Ministry of Information...
...in the British Ministry of Information...
...for my subversive action...
...in our country...
...in my country, once it was liberated.
Go back to your place!
The session is adjourned.
You tried to ridicule justice...
...following the Imperialist game.
It will cost you your head.
Traitor!
Don't leave him.
You put your neck on the line with what you did.
He did it on purpose. He's always like that.
He wants to make fun of the trial. It will cost him dearly.
The session opens.
Stand. Listen to the sentence.
The State court listened from the 20th to 27/11/1952...
the debates of the criminal case of the conspiracy cell...
...against the State. In the name of the Republic, the following...
...are condemned to death...
In the name of the Republic, the following are condemned...
...to life sentence...
I give to the accused some time to reflect.
You may consult your lawyers and decide...
...if you accept the sentences given. The court...
... reserves its right to precise it's point of view.
The session is adjourned.
Where are our lawyers?
Where is my lawyer?
I want to see my lawyer. Call him.
-Why aren't they here? -Where are they?
-I'm appealing. -Me too.
-I'm appealing as well. -And me.
Here are your lawyers.
A great many processes ask for the death penalty.
The international situation is worsening.
There shall be world war.
Eisenhower was elected president. The Party needs you.
If you appeal, the attorney shall do the same. You will all be hanged.
Petitions from all over the country call for your death.
If you behave and accept the decision of the court...
...you will be pardoned.
The Party needs a trial, not your heads.
The session is opened. I speak to the accused.
Do you accept your sentence?
I accept my sentence and renounce my right...
...to appeal.
I accept my sentence and renounce my right to appeal.
I accept my sentence.
-I accept. -I accept.
-I accept my sentence.
I accept my sentence...
...and renounce my right to appeal.
In '63 penal rehabilitation is done for all.
But some are not politically rehabilitated.
Why did nobody retract in the trial before...
-...the journalists? -The communists...
...would not have believed us. Only the enemy...
...would have shouted victory.
In '63 they freed and rehabilitated you?
They freed me in '56, but it's more complicated.
One years after the death of Stalin, they executed Beria,...
...Minister of Security in the Soviet Union, and...
...some of the chief counsellors who organised the trial.
In '55 a commission re-examines the proceedings.
Kohoutek and his crew are arrested for abusing their power.
The survivors are still in jail.
Two years later, they give amnesty to Kohoutek...
...while many of the victims of other trials
...will stay in jail for 2 or 3 more years.
Do you not remember me?
What happened to us, sir?
Do you understand anything? In '56, when they freed you...
...I was in jail. No one knows what is true and what isn't.
But those who gave the orders are still in power.
I followed orders. They had microphones to watch me.
I want to invite you to a beer.
Is your wife well?
I heard that after the trial, seeing that you were innocent...
...she did a lot for you, here and in France
And your health? Better? You have to take care.
Yes. I found a quite job.
They'll never get me again.
I'm happy for you, sir.
APRIL, 1968
The story of Kohoutek... Do you want to keep it?
-What happened to us? Do you understand any of it?
AUGUST 20, 1968
I didn't sleep at all.
-Are you really publishing it? -I'm not doing it...
...the Czechoslovak writers' Union is. They are waiting for...
-...the manuscripts -The situation isn't clear.
The imperialist forces are loose. You risk...
-...taking... -Water to the enemies' mill.
I know, I know, but you are with me, right?
I'm not alone. The Party agrees...
...and demands the truth, despite the difficulties.
-I hope we don't regret this. Many will say... -Many things.
They'll say: "In your place, I wouldn't have confessed".
They'll ask what am I doing alive. Let them speak. But...
...I'm not alone. I am with the Party, which says the same.
The conservatives lost the direction of the...
...the Czechoslovak Communist Party in early 1968.
A new period began. The people spoke...
...after years of silence and passivity...
...indifference, spitefulness.
It was proved:...
...socialism is to the freedom of the masses...
...what a fish is to water. The day I arrived in Prague...
I had to live through the invasion of the country by the 600 thousand men...
...and the 6 thousand tanks of the armies of the Warsaw Pact.
LENIN WAKE UP THEY HAVE ALL GONE MAD