Prague, Libeň, Českomoravská-Kolben-Daněk Company
former locomotive factory · Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Prague-Prague 9, Czech Republic
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I carried out information by keeping them in my head

Available in: English | Česky

In 1942, when Miroslav Kácha graduated from grammar school, he managed to avoid service at the Luftschutzpolizei (Air Protection Police) thanks to a doctor of his. He started to work in Libeň at a factory called Böhmisch-Mährische Maschinenfabrik AG (which later became ČKD, a Czechoslovak engineering company) where locomotives, tanks and personnel carriers were made. A so called Panzerjäger which served as the new tank destroyer was also a product of this company. Miroslav Kácha cooperated with the resistance movement while he was still a student. His experience helped him in carrying out espionage in the factory: “The ‘other’ side was naturally interested in inside information. Many of my acquaintances were working in the factory, including my brother who had worked there since 1940. I worked at the department of technical inspection, so, I was able to pass on information almost without any risk. I knew what was being made and where it was being made...” Kácha did not write down the information he gained, he just remembered everything. “When someone started writing things down, it was the beginning of the end. Either fools could do that, or people who weren’t aware of the situation. I already had some training as a resistance fighter.” Kácha passed his information on to former commissioned officers whom he knew from the organization Defending the Nation, for which he carried out small tasks as a student. However, at the time he had no knowledge of what was further done with the information he provided: “Later I found out that it was sent to Vysočina where the ‘Council of the Three’ had its seat. They communicated with England via radio-transmitters. Thank goodness I wasn’t revealed; otherwise I would be long gone by now.”

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Miroslav Kácha

Miroslav Kácha

Lieutenant-general Miroslav Kácha was born on September 21st in 1923 in Prague. Already as a student he took part in the resistance movement Obrana národa (´Defense of the Nation´) and after its downfall he became engaged in espionage activities aimed at a factory producing tanks and transporters located in Libeň. After the war he embarked on a military career and after the rise of the communists to power he joined the resistance movement through the espionage group lead by the Colonel Alexandr Korda. After having had been indicted, he was detained in May 1949. As an army officer he had to repeatedly undergo tough interrogations lead by the State Security - twice he was subject to interrogations in the ´House´ at Hradčany which have left him with permanent damages to his health. In September 1949 Kácha was convicted to life imprisonment and he had been held subsequently in the prisons of Pankrác, Bory, Opava and Leopoldov. He was granted release during the amnesty of 1960. After his return to civil life the State Security (StB) had tried to force him to cooperation. But on account of a construed event resulting in a serious injury he was able to avoid further persecution on health grounds. In 1995 Kácha was awarded the Legion of Merit of the White Lion by the then President Václav Havel.

Prague, Libeň, Českomoravská-Kolben-Daněk Company

Available in: English | Česky

The joint-stock company “První Českomoravská továrna na stroje v Praze,” (The First Czech-Moravian Machine Factory in Prague – transl. note), was established in 1871 and it opened its factory in Prague -Libeň. The factory had more than ten hectares and it was commissioned with constructing Petřín Observation Tower or the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště, among other things. At the turn of the century, the company started to produce rail vehicles, and in 1907, it also started, together with the Ringhoffer Company, to produce Praga cars. The company had gradually merged with two smaller companies – Kolben and Daněk. During the Second World War, the company was renamed Böhmisch-Mährische Maschinenfabrik AG and it served to produce weapons for the German army, such as the PZ-38 tank or the tank destroyer Hetzer.

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