Item COLD WAR 7/1 - Transcript of interview with Professor Eduard Goldstucker, 1996

Typescript transcript of interview with Professor Eduard Goldstücker, Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, London, 1943-1944, Ambassadorial Section, Paris, France, 1944-1945, Czech Deputy Ambassador, London, 1947-1949, Czech Envoy to Tel Aviv, Israel, 1950-1951, Professor of German Literature, Charles University, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1963-1969, Professor of Comparative Literature, Sussex University, Brighton, West Sussex, 1971-1978, relating to Goldstücker's account of his arrest for high treason, espionage and conspiracy to subvert the constitution, Prague, Dec 1951; his trial in the Czech Supreme Court, Prague, and sentence of life imprisonment, May 1953; the link between Goldstücker's trial and the trial of Rudolf Slánský, the Jewish Vice Premier of Czechoslovakia, Nov 1952; Goldstücker's interrogations following his arrest, 1951-1953; the resurgence of the Stalinist Great Terror and of anti-semitism in Czechoslovakia, 1951-1953; the status of Czechoslovakia in relation to the USSR, 1951-1953; the supply of Soviet arms to Israel via Czechoslovakia, 1947-1948; the anti-Semitic nature of the Slánský trial, Nov 1952; Israeli dependence on the USA, 1948-1949; the appointment of Golda Meir as the first Israeli Ambassador to the USSR, 1948; the welcome given by Soviet Jews to Golda Meir on her arrival in Moscow, USSR, 1948 and the anti-semitic reaction of Soviet President Josef Vissarionovich Stalin to her visit; the importance of a prisoner's confession, used as the sole means of establishing guilt during Goldstücker's trial, May 1953; the legal process employed during the Slánský trial, Nov 1952, based on techniques employed by Andrei Yanuarievich Vyshinsky, the Soviet State Prosecutor, 1935-1938; the Soviet involvement in the Czech show trials, 1952-1953; the use of torture and prolonged interrogation of prisoners by the Czech authorities to ensure the show trials followed the rehearsed plan, 1952-1953; Goldstücker's confession under coercion to the charges levelled against him, 1952-1953; the effect of the trial on Goldstücker's Communist beliefs, 1953.