Jaroslav Borkovec (1906–1949)
Jaroslav Borkovec was born at Jaroměř (Náchod District, Hradec Králové Region) on June 16, 1906, as a son of a Captain of the Czechoslovak Army. After finishing elementary school he went to study at the Písek gymnasium, and completed his secondary school studies in Prague in 1925. Then he attended a one-year graduation course at a business academy, and in 1926 went to work as a clerk in the bulb-making Elektra factory. A year later he took up a job at the Accident Insurance Company where he worked until 1946, with only several short breaks. He also began to study law at Charles University during his employment, but the war events did not allow him to graduate sooner than December 1945, when he received the title of Doctor of Law. At the time of the First Republic, Borkovec was a member of the National Democratic Party for which he was elected member of the Prague Council in 1938, to take up the function of an official in charge of technical issues.
At the beginning of the German occupation, Jaroslav Borkovec joined anti-Nazi resistance in the ranks of the Working Youth National Movement organization. Still as Prague’s councillor, he was primarily engaged in spreading illegal printed matter, and in maintaining important contacts. He was arrested by Germans in May 1940 and sentenced by the regional court in Dresden to three years’ imprisonment. He went through many prisons, serving the largest part of his sentence at Waldheim top security prison. After his release in 1943 he found a job with the Desinfa disinfection company while continuing his illegal activity, this time as a member of the Supreme Council of the Soldier and the Working People. He made use of the services of ???his??? brother Zdeněk, a prominent Prague criminologist who had access to information of major importance, such as the location of arms and ammunition depots, conditions and moods among German police, etc. In May 1945 he became member of the Revolutionary National Committee at Prague’s Old Town Hall.
In the same month he moved to the house of his future wife whose father had been shot dead by Germans in fighting near a bridge at Prague-Smíchov during the May uprising. He got married in September 1945 and his daughter was born soon afterwards. He resumed his employment with the Accident Insurance Company, but he soon had to leave for health reasons (his right hand was partially paralysed in consequence of his former stay in German prisons). In March 1946, Borkovec went to work with the law firm of Dr. Václav Havelka as an articling clerk. He did not join any political party after the war, being only a member of the Freedom Fighters Union (SBS) and of the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement (ROH). He was also chairman of the Slavia sports club swimming section and its secretary. He first attracted the interest of State Security (StB) in December 1948, when he was detained and interrogated for alleged reactionary statements and a personal intervention at the Interior Ministry. After two months, however, judicial proceedings were discontinued and he was released.
His next arrest had tragic consequences. In the morning of May 16, 1949, Borkovec was arrested by State Security („Action Anton“, „Action Květa“) and together with many others accused of subversive activity aimed at a coup d’état. It is still not quite clear how important was his resistance activity and whether it was not a provocation. In any case, communist investigators saw him as the chief ideologist of the allegedly planned putsch (they said he was to deliver a policy statement on Prague’s radio after the takeover), and as the organizer of a “new” system (according to them, he was to provide for the functioning of the state apparatus, choose appropriate persons for a new government and become its head).
At the close of a trial held July 25–30, 1949, the Mixed Bench of the State Court in Prague, comprised of Chairman Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Jiří Štella and senior officer Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Vieska, gave death sentence to Jaroslav Borkovec, Květoslav Prokeš and Vratislav Janda. Another three death penalties on charges of masterminding the so-called May Putsch were given by the State Court Civil Bench to Josef Charvát, Emanuel Čančík and Vratislav Polesný in a similarly fabricated trial. JUDr. Jaroslav Borkovec was executed at Prague’s Pankrác Prison on November 5, 1949, after dismissal of appeal and non-granting of pardon. The other five convicts in the case were executed together with him.