Karel Hiršl’s Path to the Resistance
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: February 13, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Letters written by Karel Hiršl to friends forced to work in the Reich are not just a personal and historical testimony but also a generational one. In the missives the then 20-year-old worked his way through the legacy of Czech and world literature in order, following the shock of Munich, to find a new spiritual orientation under which the world could be made better and more just. Like many, he found the answer in the ideas of socialism and in the establishment of the resistance organisation Vanguard. On 2 May 1945, Karel Hiršl was among 50 young Communist resistance fighters executed at the Small Fortress at Terezín. Those who survived, including philosopher Karel Kosík, were in the vanguard of the Prague Spring in the 1960s.
The evening will be hosted by Alena Wagnerová, who has issued the letters, and publisher Tomáš Trusina.