Ministerstvo národní bezpečnosti (Ministry of National Security) Trial of Rudolf Slánský RG-48.021 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW Washington, DC 20024-2126 Tel. (202) 479-9717 e-mail:
[email protected] Descriptive summary Title: Ministerstvo národní bezpečnosti (Ministry of National Security) Trial of Rudolf Slánský Dates: 1952 Accession number: 2016.268.1 Creator: Ministerstvo národní bezpečnosti Extent: 236,241 digital images Repository: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Washington, DC 20024-2126 Languages: Czech English Scope and content of collection Court proceedings, protocols, letters, photographs from the trial of Rudolf Slánský. On 20 November 1952, Rudolf Slánský, General Secretary of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), and 13 other leading party members, 11 of them Jews, were accused of participating in a Trotskyite- Titoite-Zionist conspiracy and convicted: 11 including Slánský were hanged in Prague on December 3, 1952. The state prosecutor at the trial in Prague was Josef Urválek. Among the accused were two Israelis: Mordechai Oren sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and Mordechai Orenstein convicted to life sentence. Accusation of Oren and Orenstein in being agents of American imperialism arouse a wide discussion among the left wing of Mapam party and Kibutz movement which coursed to its split. Those put on trial confessed to all crimes (under duress or after torture) and were sentenced to punishment. Slánský, tried to commit suicide twice in prison. The public humiliation did not end with the victims’ deaths. Their ashes were dumped at a construction site near Prague. When Stalin died in March of 1953, the strict USSR policy of purges weakened.