Bedřich Reicin (29 September 1911, in Plzeň – 3 December 1952, in

Pankrác Prison Pankrác Prison, officially Prague Pankrác Remand Prison (''Vazební věznice Praha Pankrác'' in Czech), is a prison in Prague, Czech Republic. A part of the Czech Prison Service, it is located southeast of Prague city centre in Pankrác, not ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

) was a

Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) **Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...

army officer and politician. Reicin was born into a poor Jewish family (his birth name was Friedrich Reinzinger, sometimes written as Reicinger). He first studied at a gymnasium, and later at a business college from which he was expelled after discovery of his activism for the

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. In the 1930s, Reicin became a functionary of a communist youth organization and contributor of the party newspaper Rudé Právo. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in 1939, he was imprisoned by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

. He was released after seven months and, in 1940, he managed to flee into the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. There he worked as a radio propagandist. After the attack by Germany on Soviet Union, he was interned (as were many people having

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; cs, Protektorát Čechy a Morava; its territory was called by the Nazis ("the rest of Czechia"). was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German oc ...

citizenship). In February 1942, he joined the newly formed First Czechoslovak Army Corps and soon became a propaganda officer there. In 1945, Reicin was named the head of the counter-intelligence service of the Corps, a role he reprised after the war. Between 1948 and 1951, Reicin served as the Deputy Minister of Defense, responsible for army personnel management. In 1948, he obtained the rank of brigade general (''brigádní generál''), and in 1950 the rank of division general (''divizní generál''). During and after the war, Reicin always promoted interests of the communist party in the army. After February 1948, he organized mass purges of officers who were felt to not be loyal enough to the new regime (including

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

František Peřina). His behind-the-scene work made him very powerful in the military and political hierarchy. Alexej Čepička, who had been the Minister of Defense since 1950, felt threatened by Reicin and conspired against him. In February 1951, Reicin and many of his coworkers were imprisoned. Reicin was selected for participation in the Slánský Trial, and for year and half was prepared and tortured to fit the role. One of the accusations was handing Julius Fučík (a communist journalist) over to the Gestapo, a technical impossibility since Reicin was already in the Soviet Union at this time. At the Slánský Trial, Reicin and ten others were sentenced to death and hanged at

External links

Very short biography
(in Czech)
More detailed biography
(PDF, , in Czech)
Military intelligence in Czechoslovakia 1945-48
(covers role of Reicin) {{DEFAULTSORT:Reicin, Bedrich 1911 births 1952 deaths 20th-century Czech people Czech politicians Jewish Czech politicians Czech soldiers Czechoslovak soldiers Czech Jews People from Plzeň Executed Czech people Czechoslovak expatriates in the Soviet Union Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politicians Jewish socialists People executed by the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic by hanging