František Kriegel

František Kriegel (10 April 1908 – 3 December 1979) was a Czechoslovak politician, physician, and a member of the Communist Party reform wing of the Prague Spring. He was the only one of the political leaders who, during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, declined to sign the Moscow Protocol.

Early life František Kriegel was born in Stanisławów (today Ivano-Frankivsk), Austria-Hungary (present Ukraine) to the family of a Jewish builder. His father died when František was ten, and the family became dependent upon help from František's grandfather. Due to the fierce anti-semitism in Galicia of that time, young Kriegel left home to study medicine at German part of Charles University in Prague (instead of the nearby Lviv University where there was an unofficial Jewish quota in place). His mother could only give him a little money and six white shirts.

Prague Kriegel had to earn a living in a shoemaker's shop or as an extra in the theatre (he even sold sausages in football stadiums), but he enjoyed an independent life in the highly tolerant society of 1920s Czechoslovakia. where he witnessed the victory of the Allies in October 1945.

Back in Czechoslovakia Kriegel returned to Czechoslovakia in November 1945 and, while continuing to work as a doctor, he involved himself in the political work of the Communist Party. He was a member of the KSČ Regional Committee in Prague and was working as a secretary in Lidové milice (People's Militias) when the KSČ seized control of the country in February 1948. He was appointed as the undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in 1949. During the political purges of the party in the 1950s, Kriegel had to leave the ministry and worked as a doctor for the Tatra company. He resumed his medical career in 1957 and became chief physician at the Vinohrady hospital in Prague. In 1960, he went to Cuba as an adviser of the Fidel Castro's government on the organisation of medical care – thus he was there at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. When he returned to Czechoslovakia, Kriegel refused a post in the party organisation but stood as a member of the National Assembly and was elected in 1964. He was so distrusted by the Soviets that he was not allowed to be present during the negotiations of the two parties, and when he was asked to sign the text of the concluding statement he was the only one of 26 politicians to refuse. and his body was seized by the authorities to prevent any demonstrations at a funeral. He is buried together with his wife Riva Krieglova in Prague's Motol Cemetery near the Memorial to Victims of Communism.

Legacy

The František Kriegel Award is granted annually to a person who has fought for human rights. It was founded in Stockholm in 1987 and is funded by the Charter 77 Fund. In August 2014 the city council of Prague 2 municipality refused to grant him an honorary citizenship.