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A murderer by profession - The suffering of judge Karel Vaše
The judge and prosecutor responsible for the deaths of countless people died unpunished. Until the end of his life, face to face with the facts, he claimed that his hands and conscience were clean, and that he was always on the side of humane progress... Pavel Paleček worked on the film with his collaborators for five years. He diligently searched the archives, he even managed to obtain documents about Vaš from Russian sources, he interviewed prisoners whom Vaš had harmed (many of whom have since died), Czech justice workers and also the famous Cold War historian Mark Kramer from Harvard University. Yours truly, who died in 2012 at the age of 96, was an ardent communist, more precisely a fanatical Stalinist. Although during the war he let Czechoslovak soldiers who could no longer fight be shot, his comrades murdered a thousand innocent German civilians in Postoloprty in 1945. Then, as a prosecutor and judge, he sentenced hundreds of innocent people to long years in prison, General Heliodor Píka and about twenty other people even to the death penalty, and he never admitted that he did anything wrong. He was among the main liquidators of the elite of the Czechoslovak army - brave soldiers who fought on the western and eastern fronts. He is said to have always followed the applicable laws. Nikoliv - followed orders from Moscow. In the 1950s, his comrades locked him up for a while, he probably fell into the hunt for Jews in high positions, but after his release he continued his career as a historian of the labor movement. Czech justice did not find a way to pass a final verdict on his actions. Yes, the Municipal Court in Prague convicted him, but the Court of Appeal acquitted him. The reason was simple: the appeal was directed by a former communist military prosecutor, who healed his own guilt with this verdict. Yours plays the victim - the height of his shamelessness is the claim that he was entitled to be promoted to the rank of general after November 1989. The authors decided to illustrate your activity with small tips with actors. Artist David Černý took on the role of moderator with success – his unconventional appearance opens the way for the film especially to young viewers.





