U.S. Embassy Participated in Opening of the Unique exhibition about General Píka

Milan Píka, son of General Píka (left) and Major Matt Kime of the U.S. Embassy Prague

June 11, 2009

At the beginning of June, Brno’s University of Defense hosted the opening of a unique exhibition of historical photographs and papers documenting the life and tragic end of General Heliodor Píka, a Czechoslovak Army officer executed on June 21, 1949 by the Communist regime after a fabricated trial due principally to his pro-Western attitude while head of the Czechoslovak military mission in the Soviet Union during World War II. After 1968, Píka‘s case was reopened and a military tribunal found him innocent on all charges.

The exhibition’s creator, František Hanzlík, reminded his audience that it was Czech Americans in Chicago who, in the fifties, were among the first to give credit to his principals and heroism and called their group by the name of Heliodor Píka. During the opening of the exhibition called “Tragický osud vlastence” (“Tragic Destiny of A Patriot”), the son of General Píka, Milan, met with Major Matt Kime, Deputy Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at U.S. Embassy Prague, who said, “Your father did not die in vain. His death kept truth alive and helped make freedom and democracy possible in this country. The Czechs have real heroes, it is important to remember them.” 

The exhibition in Brno will remain until the end of August 2009.

Related Links:

• University of Defense
• For General Pika, justice comes far too late (Prague Post, June 27, 2001)