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- The documentary film "A Trial in Prague" is about the Slansky trials which took place in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1952. During the last five years of Stalin's rule, as Israel turned more and more to the West, the Communist Party became virulently anti-Semitic. Furthermore, Stalin needed to demonstrate to the rest of Eastern Europe that he would not tolerate another Yugoslavia, where Tito had succeeded in achieving a measure of autonomy. So Stalin, in his obsession for total power, created an "enemy within" and orchestrated the infamous show trials, The Slansky trials, in Prague. Thirteen high-ranking Czech Communists, including the powerful Rudolph Slansky, who was the party's general secretary, were arrested on trumped up charges and tortured, physically and mentally, until they confessed to high treason and espionage. They were forced to memorize their testimony for the eight-day trial, which had been carefully scripted by Stalin's apparatchiks. Eleven of the accused were Jews whose loyalty to the Communist Party was sincere and intense. They had lived through the Holocaust and hoped that Communism would provide solutions to post-World War II social, economic and political problems. But their loyalty to the Communist Party stood them in no good stead. Eleven of the accused were hung; the other three were sent to hard labor camps and were released only when Stalin died.
- The film captures the excited political atmosphere in March 1968 Czechoslovakia when president Antonin Novotny stepped down and Ludvik Svoboda was elected a new president. The then top political figures are filmed during their day to day meetings, often during their personal conversations. Thus a mosaic of shots portraying the spirit of those times is created.
- Today, in 2008, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic are two independent, democratic states and members of the EU and NATO. Forty years ago, more precisely on 21 August 1968, this thought would have failed to provoke even a smirk in Prague and Bratislava - so far-fetched, so very remote was any chance for change and self-determination. On that summer day, troops of the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia with 460 000 soldiers and 7000 tanks. It was the largest military operation since the Second World War. With this act of force, the Soviet Union brought a brief period of social and political freedom to a grinding halt. This abrupt end to a period of feverish reform activity went down in history as the Prague Spring. August 2008 marks the 40th anniversary of the crushing of the Prague Spring. Over the last few years, many state archives have opened their doors to historians. Today, a lot more background information about the occupation, the political setting and key players is available than only a few years ago. The history The focus is on the political events between January and August 1968, the escalating conflict between the reforms prompted by party leader Alexander Dubcek and the Kreml.