It is the first educational and research historical project supported by the FF Endowment Fund. The Surgite Caput project aims to commemorate the personality of General Václav Ždímal, a participant in the first and second Czechoslovak resistance movements, and place him in the context of the 20th century. Václav Ždímal laid down his life for the values of democracy and for Czechoslovakia in the fight against Nazism. He was executed on 2 September 1942 in Plötzensee prison in Berlin.
After February 1948, he was systematically erased from the official memory of the nation. His family was persecuted, mainly because of his participation in the fight against the Bolsheviks during his service in the Russian Legions (1916–1920).
It took three decades before the democratic Czech state and its institutions began to take adequate notice of the fate of General Václav Ždímal, his colleagues from the Czechoslovak Army, the resistance and many other citizens of the former Czechoslovakia who were unjustly convicted in political trials comparable to those of the communists and executed in Nazi Germany, outside the territory of today's Czech Republic. On the initiative of German history professor Johannes Tuchel, his team and with substantial financial support from the German side, fundamental research has been conducted over the last decade on Czechoslovak victims of Nazi justice in Berlin-Plötzensee. Thanks to this research, there is also a gradual change in the attitude of the Czech state and its scientific and other institutions.
The current uncertain geopolitical situation is turning attention back to the past – to periods that bear many parallels with the present. Detailed historical research into these events not only provides new insights into forgotten heroes, but also important warnings for contemporary society. At the same time, it enables the transfer of experience – it shows how and with what degree of success our ancestors grappled with almost identical problems less than a century ago that we face today.
In the medium term, the project aims to work with historians from Czech and German institutions to examine in detail the fates of all six generals who were convicted and executed in Berlin's Plötzensee prison during the Second World War.
Following this historical research, a web platform is being created in cooperation with Final Final Studio, where the results of the research and the findings will be presented to a wide professional and lay audience online.
The long-term goal is to erect a concrete memorial to General Václav Ždímal and other high-ranking officers of the Czechoslovak Army who were executed in Berlin-Plötzensee. The memorial has already been designed by the architectural studio H3T, and it will be situated in Defence Sector XIII "Rostislav", located in the Hrubý Jeseník region. In this sector, which was under the command of the IV Army Corps, General Ždímal served as the commander of artillery of that corps in 1938 during the September mobilisation of the Czechoslovak state. The memorial will be linked to the above-mentioned online platform.