Otakar Hromádko

Otakar Hromádko (30 August 1909 – 14 April 1983) was a Czechoslovak journalist and army officer.

Although he spent first half of his life fighting for communist ideals later became a victim of communist purges and a political émigré.

Although he grew up a strong anti-militarist, he ended up having a significant military career and was awarded military decorations by four countries: France (Croix de Guerre), Poland (War Order of Virtuti Militari), Yugoslavia (Order of National Merit) and Czechoslovakia (several decorations including the Czechoslovak War Cross and highest order of Czechoslovakia, Order of the White Lion).

He fought as a volunteer in International Brigades in Spanish Civil War and French anti-Nazi resistance during World War II.

Hromádko was born 30 August 1909 in Kněž, Bohemia, to forester Otto Hromádko and his wife Marie Hromádková.

When his father died in 1914 in World War I, the family (mother, grandparents and Otakar with 3 siblings) moved to town Německý Brod.

In 1928 he started studying law in Brno and entered Young Communist League of Czechoslovakia (Komsomol).

In 1930 he was arrested and imprisoned as a leader of a group of students that painted anti-war slogans (his anti-militarism can be traced back to loss of his father and to the influence of his mother and grandfather Kadleček) on a church in Německý Brod.

He was subsequently excluded from the university in Brno.

In the following years, he focused fully on communist activity.

He was the Regional Secretary of Komsomol and Regional Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in electoral regions Pardubice, Prague-venkov and České Budějovice.

He was also the editor of Rudé právo, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and of journal Jednota.

He spent long periods of the 1930s in hiding, as he was wanted by Czechoslovak police and courts for numerous crimes, mostly involving illegal distribution of communist press.

Between 1930 and 1936, he was imprisoned or detained ten times in eight different prisons in Czechoslovakia and once in Dresden, Germany.

After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he volunteered to fight in the International Brigades.

He served as a political commisaire in the 129th International Brigade, battalion Masaryk, between 1937 and 1939.

He fought at the fronts in Extramadura, Aragon, Levante and as the rear-guard during the retreat from Catalonia to France.

After crossing the Pyrénées, he was interned in French internment camps in St. Cyprien and Gurs.

In both camps he was the head of illegal organization of Czechoslovak communists.

In October 1939 he was transported together with other „Komintern agents“ to the concentration camp Vernet.

His military career culminated in the late 1940s when he became the general secretary of all communist organizations in the Czechoslovak Army.

On June 2, 1941, he managed to escape from Nazi transport to Germany.

He immediately joined the French resistance in Paris.

Since 1941 was a member of Czechoslovak Central National Committee in France (Československý ústřední národní výbor pro Francii), from 1943 military officer in the same organization.

Since 1943 he was one of four staff officers who coordinated military activities of international groups in non-occupied France that were incorporated into the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).

Gaining a rank of Captain of FFI, he was in command of 1,200-strong group of non-French militias in Paris region.

During his stay in Paris, Hromádko fell in love with Věra Waldes, a daughter of wealthy Czech industrial family.

They narrowly escaped detention multiple times.

In 1945 Hromádko worked for Czech broadcasting of French national radio in Paris.

At the end of the war, Ota and Věra married in Paris under fake documents – even their witnesses‘ documents were fake.

In summer 1945, the husbands were awarded military awards for their role in the resistance.

In July 1945, Otakar and Věra moved to Czechoslovakia.

After World War II he returned to Czechoslovakia and took part in strengthening the dominance of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the years leading to, and immediately following, the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état.

In the early 1950s he fell victim to communist purges and was sentenced to 12 years of prison.

Served over five years in prisons and labor camps in uranium mines.

In 1956, he was released and later fully rehabilitated.

After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 he emigrated to Switzerland.

Later, in 1982, he published a book of memoirs focused mostly on his prison experience and disillusionment from revolutions.

Died in Yverdon-les-Bains in 1983.

Hromádko spent almost 10 years of his life in prisons, labour camps and detention camps under different regimes and in different countries.