On June 21, 1923, a girl named Herta Kašparová was born in the railway station building in Třešť, a small town in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands of Czechoslovakia. Her father, Alois Kašpar, worked as a railway dispatcher for the Czechoslovak State Railways and had been transferred to Třešť shortly before her birth. The family belonged to the Sudeten German minority—ethnic Germans living within a predominantly Czech town. From the beginning, Herta’s identity existed within the tensions of nationality, language, and belonging that defined interwar Czechoslovakia.
She was born with a deformity in her right leg that caused her to walk with a pronounced limp. In a town of fewer than 3,000 residents, where social life was tightly woven and differences were visible, her disability marked her as distinct. She attended the local elementary school and joined the Sokol youth organization, a Czech nationalist gymnastics movement promoting physical fitness and Czech cultural identity. She spoke both Czech and German fluently and had Czech classmates and acquaintances.
Later testimony suggested that during her childhood she endured mockery for her limp. Some former classmates recalled boys imitating her gait and girls whispering as she passed. Whether exaggerated by hindsight or remembered accurately, these experiences were later cited as formative in her development.
Her family’s position in town also contributed to tension. Though living and working in Czechoslovakia, the Kašpars identified as German and spoke German at home. After the Munich Agreement of 1938, which transferred the Sudetenland to Germany, questions of nationality became politically charged. When it appeared that Sudeten Germans might be expected to relocate or formalize their allegiance, the family reportedly emphasized Czech connections and altered the spelling of their surname in official contexts. Such shifts were noticed by neighbors and contributed to local resentment.
In March 1939, Germany occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia, establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. German authority replaced Czech sovereignty. For ethnic Germans in Czech-majority areas, the balance of power changed abruptly. German language and identity, previously complicated within local social structures, now carried the backing of the occupying regime.
Around 1940, at approximately 17 years of age, Herta Kašparová began working for the German criminal police in Jihlava. Officially employed as a clerk and translator, she assisted during interrogations of Czech detainees. Her bilingual ability made her valuable to German authorities. Prisoners questioned by the Gestapo often spoke Czech; she translated their statements into German and conveyed the interrogators’ words in return.
In September 1942, she was transferred to Zlín, where Gestapo and criminal police operations were more extensive. Zlín, home to the Bata shoe company and a significant industrial center under German control, was a hub of anti-resistance investigations. There, her work continued in interrogations and administrative processes that led to arrests and, in many cases, severe punishment. Precise numbers of those affected by her involvement are unknown, though Czech sources attribute multiple denunciations and cases to her assistance.
As the war drew to a close in spring 1945, German authority in the Protectorate began collapsing. Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. On May 5, the Prague Uprising began, and resistance spread throughout Bohemia and Moravia. In Třešť, local resistance members seized control, raised Czechoslovak flags, and briefly drove out German personnel. During these days, properties associated with Germans and collaborators were attacked, including the Kašpar family home near the railway station.
On May 7, 1945, German forces—primarily SS units—launched a counteroperation from Jihlava, temporarily retaking Třešť. The town’s brief liberation was reversed. The SS began arresting Czech men suspected of participating in the uprising. Those detained included resistance members as well as ordinary townspeople accused of public celebration or suspected support.
German forces unfamiliar with local identities required assistance identifying individuals connected to the uprising. According to multiple postwar testimonies, Herta Kašparová was brought to assist in identifying detainees. Witnesses later stated that she pointed out men whom she alleged had taken part in anti-German actions. Reports from the subsequent trial record that she indicated 33 men.
On May 7, 1945, these 33 men were executed by firing squad in Třešť. They were shot in the courtyard of the town hall. Among them were individuals known to Kašparová from childhood. Later accounts indicated that at least two of the executed men had been among those who had mocked her years earlier. The remaining victims included townspeople whose specific connection to resistance activity varied.
The following day, Soviet forces entered the region. German units withdrew, and Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945. The war in Europe ended. For those in Třešť, attention turned to those who had collaborated with the occupiers.
Recognizing the danger she faced, Herta Kašparová fled across the border into Austria amid the postwar displacement that characterized Central Europe in 1945. However, investigations by Czechoslovak authorities and testimony from townspeople led to her identification. In 1946, she was arrested in Austria and returned to Czechoslovakia to stand trial.
Her case was heard before a people’s court established to prosecute collaborators and war criminals. These tribunals operated under legal procedures, allowing witness testimony and defense statements. During proceedings, Kašparová acknowledged that her actions had contributed to deaths and stated that she had acted out of revenge. Testimony detailed her work with the Gestapo in Jihlava and Zlín, as well as her identification of the 33 men executed in May 1945.
The court found her guilty of collaboration and crimes against Czech citizens resulting in death. She was sentenced to capital punishment.
The method prescribed was pole hanging, a traditional form of execution used in Czechoslovakia for certain crimes, including treason. Unlike the long-drop hanging intended to break the neck quickly, pole hanging involved suspension by a rope tightened gradually, resulting in death by strangulation rather than instantaneous cervical fracture.
On September 13, 1946, the execution was carried out publicly near Třešť Castle. A wooden pole approximately 3 m in height had been erected. A noose was attached to a hook at the top. According to contemporary records, a crowd gathered to witness the execution, reflecting the public character of postwar retribution in parts of Eastern Europe.
Kašparová was brought to the site under guard. Accounts describe her as visibly distressed. A priest offered last rites. She was secured to the pole, the noose placed around her neck, and the platform beneath her removed. The execution proceeded in accordance with the method prescribed.
A physician confirmed death at 6:38 p.m. She was 23 years old.
Her execution became notable as the last public execution of a woman in Czechoslovak history. In the years that followed, executions were conducted within prison facilities rather than in public view. Eventually, Czechoslovakia abolished capital punishment altogether.
The events in Třešť in May 1945 are commemorated locally. A memorial marks the site where the 33 men were executed, honoring them as victims of Nazi occupation and collaboration. There is no memorial dedicated to Kašparová. Her story remains tied to the broader history of occupation, collaboration, retribution, and the complexities of postwar justice.
Her case continues to raise historical and ethical questions. She was directly involved in identifying townsmen who were subsequently executed and acknowledged motives of revenge. At the same time, her background—growing up as a disabled ethnic German in a tense interwar environment, later empowered by occupation authorities—illustrates how personal grievance intersected with systemic violence.
The period following liberation across Central and Eastern Europe saw numerous trials and executions of collaborators. Some sentences were carried out swiftly and publicly, reflecting both legal judgment and societal anger in the aftermath of occupation. The line between justice and retribution was debated then and remains debated by historians today.
The 33 men executed in Třešť on May 7, 1945 are remembered as victims of Nazi repression and collaboration. Herta Kašparová is remembered as one who, given authority under occupation, used it to condemn neighbors to death. Her trial and execution stand as part of the broader reckoning that followed the collapse of Nazi rule—a reckoning shaped by trauma, memory, and the demand for accountability in the wake of war.
