The Little House at Hradčany
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: February 23, 2022, 19:00 – 21:00
No, it wasn’t a doll’s house. Kapucínská St. in Hradčany is home to a small building, hidden from view, with a dark past, a place of cruel interrogations and great heroism. From the days of Austria-Hungary, the “little house”, as it was called, was a prison and during WWII it was used by the Gestapo. It acquired its greatest “fame” after the war, when, administered by the ministry of national defence, it became in 1952 the Communist regime’s worst torture chamber. Hundreds of political prisoners, including Heliodor Píka, Karel Kutlvašr, Jaromír Nechanský, Prokop Drtina and ice hockey internationals, were jailed and investigated here in frequently inhumane conditions. This place and its history will be recalled in the nascent permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century.
The debate will focus on cruel interrogation methods and the stories of the perpetrators and their victims. Historians František Hanzlík and Prokop Tomek will speak.
The evening will be hosted by the director of the Museum of the 20th Century, Jan Kalous.
A Václav Havel Library and Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century series.