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For her civic engagement during the republican period of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938), her subsequent resistance to the Nazi occupation, and, finally, her democratic commitment in the face of the establishment of a totalitarian communist regime, Milada Horáková (1901–1950) has become an emblematic figure in the memory of totalitarianism in her country and an inspiration for those who genuinely defend human rights around the world.
A lawyer who graduated from Charles University in Prague in 1926, Milada Horáková was a human rights defender, feminist activist, and social democratic politician in what was then Czechoslovakia. During the Nazi occupation, she was part of the underground resistance, for which she was arrested, sent to the Terezín concentration camp, and tried in the German city of Dresden, where she defended herself and managed to avoid the death penalty. After the Second World War, Horáková remained involved in politics and became a member of parliament for a party representing social democratic ideas. Disagreeing with the erosion of democracy by the communists, she resigned from her parliamentary post but remained firm in her political opposition, which lead to her arrest and eventual death sentence.
Despite international appeals for her life from figures such as Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Milada Horáková was hanged on June 27, 1950, after spending nine months in detention and under torture. Her execution followed a typical Stalinist show trial based on fabricated charges and a Soviet propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting her.
From the Velvet Revolution to Netflix
With the victory of Solidarity (Solidarność) in Poland on June 4, 1989, and the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9 of that same year, communism collapsed in then-Czechoslovakia just eight days later, as the peaceful Velvet Revolution brought dissident writer Václav Havel to power and with him the return of democracy. This return was rooted in the country’s earlier democratic tradition between 1918 and 1938 under the governments of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš.
With the opening of the political system in 1990, letters that Milada Horáková had written to her daughter Jana while in prison which had never been delivered came to light. Jana was 16 years old when Milada was executed. She went on to live with her aunt and was only reunited with her father, Bohuslav Horák, 18 years later.
Milada Horáková’s story reached beyond the borders of the Czech Republic thanks to the film Milada, produced by Netflix, directed by David Mrnka, and starring Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer. It premiered in November 2017. The final message of Mrnka’s film is also a testament to international democratic solidarity, suggesting that Milada’s inspiring story can serve as a reminder of the millions of people currently living under dictatorial regimes—around 3.2 billion worldwide, according to The Economist’s Democracy Index.
Czech Remembrance of Milada Horáková
The library of the Faculty of Law at Palacký University in Olomouc bears her name. A bust of her stands at the memorial in front of Pankrác Prison in Prague 4, where she was executed, and another public space in her memory is located in the Plaza of the Five Churches in Prague’s old town. Although her body was cremated after her execution and her ashes were never found, a symbolic grave for Milada Horáková exists at Vyšehrad Cemetery, also in Prague.
On the eve of the 75th anniversary of her execution, the owner of the Praga Sirens singing school in Prague’s Holešovice neighborhood commissioned street artist Toy Box to create a mural of Milada Horáková, just meters from the street named after the Czech heroine and near the place where she once lived.
In an interview with Radio Prague International, the artist explained: “I took a photo of her, cut it into pieces to reflect the brutality of her fate, and then redrew, or rather repainted, it on the wall. I also included a fragment from a letter she wrote to her daughter from prison.” The excerpt reads: "Walk through the world with your eyes wide open and listen not only to your own pain and worries, but also to the pain, worries, and desires of others."
The Importance of Milada’s Story for Latin America
From a Latin American perspective, it may seem incomprehensible that June 27 is commemorated in the Czech Republic as the Day of the Victims of Communism, because on that date in 1950 Milada Horáková and other dissidents were executed. It becomes even more puzzling upon learning that this victim of the communist regime in then-Czechoslovakia had previously been persecuted and imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II.
Incomprehensible because, to this day, across Latin American politics, social organizations, and cultural spheres, there is still largely a sense of sympathy or complacency toward present-day communist dictatorships, most notably Cuba in Latin America and China on a global scale. It is a rare exception to hear voices from the Latin American democratic left, for example, denouncing the political imprisonment of women in Cuba, such as Lizandra Góngora, Sayli Navarro, Sissi Abascal, and Aniette González, imprisoned for exercising the human right to free expression; or condemning the systematic repression of Tibetans and Uyghurs in China.
At the same time, Milada is not a reference point for the Latin American conservative right either, that supported authoritarianism during the leaden years and now back, for example, hardline policies, such as those of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador or Donald Trump's anti-immigration agenda in the United States. After all, she was a woman who, in the first half of the 20th century, embraced feminist activism and social rights in then-Czechoslovakia, embodying the archetype of a human rights defender who has often fallen victim to enforced disappearances and state terrorism under both military dictatorships and failed democracies in the region.
This is why Milada Horáková's legacy is important for Latin America: she represents someone who genuinely defended human rights without ideological bias. Her story may resonate with democratic figures in the histories of Cuba and Nicaragua. In Cuba, with those who first stood up to the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista between 1952 and 1958 and later to Fidel Castro’s communist revolution, holding onto power without ever holding the promised free elections. And in Nicaragua, where people initially endured the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza (1974–1979), and since 2007, have faced the authoritarian rule of Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, who to this day have dismantled political opposition through repression, imprisonment, and forced exile.
Ultimately, Milada’s story and legacy challenge broad political sectors in Latin America. From the right, which demands order at the expense of civil liberties and denies social rights, to the left, which largely remains complicit with all the region’s and world’s dictatorships. In contrast to Milada, today’s political references of Latin American “progressivism” reveal how overrated their democratic credentials and commitment to human rights truly are, given how they are marked by inconsistent trajectories that are more sympathetic to dictators than to their victims.
Making Her Legacy Visible from Argentina
It took nearly twenty years after Argentina's return to democracy for a civil society organization to emerge that, inspired by the memory of the international democratic solidarity received during the last military dictatorship (1976–1983), assumed the moral duty of shedding light on and supporting today’s victims of dictatorships of all ideological stripes.
Founded in late February 2003 as a private, non-partisan foundation, CADAL (Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America) has since dedicated itself to promoting human rights and international democratic solidarity, drawing inspiration primarily from Václav Havel (1936–2011). In this regard, CADAL found in the case of Milada Horáková a symbol of honest human rights advocacy. This seems particularly relevant in a context where many prominent Argentine organizations sympathize with the ideas of regimes like the one that executed the Czech activist, and remain silent in the face of the dictatorships of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela in Latin America, ignoring the suffering of people around the world living under political slavery.
In 2020, with support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, CADAL published the book Milada Horáková: Defender of Human Rights and Victim of Totalitarianism, written by historian Ricardo López Göttig, who earned his doctorate at Charles University in Prague. The book is available for free download on CADAL’s website. Furthermore, in 2024 and 2025, with the authorization of the film’s director, David Mrnka, CADAL and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Argentina organized free screenings of the movie Milada to mark the anniversary of her execution. A prize for young participants of the virtual seminar “Goodbye Lenin” also bears the name of the Czech heroine. An interview conducted by journalist Jorge Elías with David Mrnka, director of Milada, is available on CADALTV on YouTube.
A Democratic Inspiration in the Face of Dictatorships
One of Milada Horáková’s legacies is that the defense of human rights and democratic institutions must be exercised without double standards, regardless of the political orientation of the authoritarian regime in question. Another of her great legacies is the extraordinary courage of a truly exceptional person, who was willing to risk everything in the peaceful defense of human rights, thinking not only of their own freedom, but also of that of their fellow citizens and future generations.
The future of democracy and human rights depends on new generations finding in figures like Milada Horáková an example to follow, not only to stand up to authoritarianism, but also to actively stand in solidarity with its victims.
