Petschek Palace — bank, Gestapo headquarters and memorial
Story period: Built 1923–1929 · Gestapo 1939–1945 · postwar memorial
Location: Petschek Palace, Politických vězňů 931/20
Petschek Palace was built in the 1920s for the Petschek family’s bank. After the occupation, the Prague Gestapo took it over, conducting investigations and torturing prisoners here. Its links to ANTHROPOID include Čurda’s denunciation on 16 June 1942 and the September court-martial of four Orthodox helpers. A postwar memorial in part of the building preserves testimony to its violent use.
A palace for a banking house
1923–1929
The imposing building originally served a family bank.
Petschek & Co. commissioned architect Max Spielmann to design the palace at the corner of today’s Politických vězňů and Washingtonova streets. Built in 1923–1929, it had a reinforced-concrete structure, extensive bank vaults and modern technical equipment. Its original purpose explains its prominence and facilities in central Prague.
Seized for the Prague Gestapo
1939–1945
After the occupation, the building became a site of interrogation and torture.
The Gestapo seized the palace in 1939. Prisoners brought here, including from Pankrác prison, waited for interrogation in a room nicknamed the ‘cinema’. Some were tortured, and a court-martial sat in the building. The palace served wider Nazi repression, not only the investigation of one operation.
Denunciation and the destruction of the support network
16–17 June 1942
Čurda’s testimony led the Gestapo to households that had helped the parachutists.
Karel Čurda went to Gestapo headquarters on 16 June 1942 and identified parachutists and helpers he knew. His testimony supplied leads to families who then faced arrests and violent interrogation. The Gestapo discovered the church refuge only afterwards; Čurda did not identify it himself.
A public court-martial
3 September 1942
Four church helpers were sentenced to death.
The palace hosted the public trial of chaplain Vladimír Petřek, priest Václav Čikl, church council chairman Jan Sonnevend and Bishop Gorazd. Jindra’s study records that it was filmed and testimony transcribed. All four defendants received death sentences and were subsequently executed at Kobylisy shooting range.
A memorial in the former Gestapo headquarters
after 1945
After the war, part of the building became a place to remember the victims.
A memorial to anti-fascist resistance was established in the palace basement after the war. The present exhibition dates from 1990. The rest of the building served government ministries. The former bank thus also preserves public remembrance of the Gestapo’s victims.
The point marks the building. None of the sources used identifies a particular interrogation room or courtroom.
Explore further
- Karel Čurda
made his denunciation here on 16 June 1942
- The Svatoš apartment
Čurda’s stop before the denunciation
- The church in Resslova Street
the refuge exposed following the Gestapo investigation
- Kobylisy shooting range
where the church helpers sentenced in the palace were executed
Sources
- Atentát: Operace Anthropoid 1941–1942 · 76
- Atentát: Operace Anthropoid 1941–1942 · 76
- Atentát: Operace Anthropoid 1941–1942 · 91