Čurda, Karel, born 10-10-1911, in Stará Hliná, in Austria Hungary, Curda was a soldier of the Czechoslovak army
in exile, The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia[a] was a partially-annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16-03-1939 after the German occupation of the Czech lands. The protectorate’s population was mostly ethnic Czech.
Čurda was parachuted into the protectorate in 1942 as a member of the sabotage group Out Distance. Operation Out Distance was a Czech resistance group active during World War II. It was dispatched by Special Group D of the Ministry of Defence of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London. The group operated in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a region of occupied Czechoslovakia.
First Lieutenant Adolf Opálka and Karel Čurda travelled to Prague to join Operation Anthropoid, aimed at assassinating high ranking German SS official Reinhard Heydrich. Upon joining group Silver A, Opálka was tasked with commanding the parachute groups. other members where Josef Gabcik
and Jan Kubis
The two Czech agents who had also trained in Great Britain parachuted into German-occupied Czech territory to assassinate Heydrich. As Heydrich traveled on a familiar route to the airport to fly to Hitler’s headquarters for a meeting, two Czech agents succeeded in rolling a hand grenade under his car. Though not mortally wounded by the blast itself, the grenade splinters in Heydrich’s leg and lower back led to an infection that killed him little more than a week later. In retaliation for the attack, the Germans unleashed a wave of terror against the Czechs. For example, they destroyed the Czech village of Lidice, shooting all the men in the village and deporting most of the women and children to camps in Germany.
The operation successfully eliminated Reinhard Heydrich,
but in the aftermath, as mass executions started during the second martial law, Čurda sought refuge with his mother in Nová Hlína. Unable to withstand the physical and emotional strain and seeking to protect his family, Čurda betrayed his military oath by providing the Gestapo with information after an announcement promising leniency for such intelligence. This led to the discovery of the assassins’ hideout at Prague’s Ss. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral.


A fierce battle ensued, resulting in the death or suicide of Opálka and other resistors. Čurda subsequently assisted the Gestapo in identifying the bodies of fellow parachutists, receiving a portion of the 10 million Reichsmark reward offered by the occupiers.
Later that year, Curda betrayed the Czechoslovak army agents responsible for the assassination of top Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. His reward was 10,000,000 Kronen or 1 million Reichsmarks and a new identity, “Karl Jerhot”. He married a German woman and spent the rest of the war as a Gestapo collaborator.
Death and burial ground of Curda, Karel.



After the war, Čurda was tracked down and arrested. When asked in court how he could betray his comrades, Čurda reportedly answered, “I think you would have done the same for 1 million marks.” Čurda was found guilty of treason and hanged on 29-04-1947, age 35, at Pankrác Prison. Pankrác Prison.



Modern Czech historian Jiří Plachý gave a different account of his personality and motives. According to research, Čurda stayed with his family in South Bohemia in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. That put him under huge pressure as he knew the Nazis could wipe out his whole family or village, just as they had wiped out Lidice and Ležáky. It is posited that this was the key factor in his actions.

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