Written under the gallows

Translated from Czech by Yvonne and Karel MAREK. Foreword by Professor LADISLAV STOLL.

"On September 8, 1943, Julius Fučík was murdered by the Nazis, after suffering imprisonment and torture. He had been condemned to death by a Nazi tribunal in Berlin on August 25, 1943, and brought to that city from Pankrac prison in Prague. However, two prison guards had clandestinely gathered Julius Fučík's writings, which were compiled after 1945 into a work called Reportage Written Under the Gallows. This report from within the prison, in the face of fascist barbarity, had an enormous impact. It was a realistic portrayal, in the form of a testimony; it was the dignity of reality that prevailed. Through the simplicity of his narrative, Fučík here equals the greatest masters of literature. Thus, critics worldwide bow in admiration before this testimony."