You don’t have to be psychic to see the future of America, you only need to study the history of Czechoslovakia to see that the same fascist playbook is being employed by the Republican party. The spirit of the Fabry family and their friends in exile have been helping me all these years, preparing me for the rise of fascism and giving me courage to share their stories of resistance here, as an education and warning to all. It is more important than ever that we speak the truth boldly and with heartfelt conviction, because it is the communication of truth that dictators fear the most. We need to support independent newspapers and journalists who are risking everything to report the truth.
The next document comes from the Director of Verbandsdruckerei A.G. (Association Printing Company), Bern, Switzerland, dated 26 February 1958, a declaration on behalf of Dr. Pavel Fabry – “a good patriot and friend of Switzerland”.
Declaration
I have known Dr. Pavel Fabry from Bratislava, Slovakia, since 1946, when he came to me through the mediation of WIFAG (Winkler, Fallert & Co. AG Bern) to buy our rotary press, which we were about to replace. The purchase was urgent because he wanted to use this machine in Slovakia, as the already advanced communist power had also spread to the printing works. This was done with the aim of preventing the democratic parties (Democratic and Social Democratic Parties) from printing election propaganda for the upcoming elections. For this reason, Dr. Fabry wanted a machine so that he could continue the election propaganda with printed matter in a close circle with his democratic party friends.
The purchase came about partly through our cooperation and because we knew the machine would serve anti-communist purposes. The machine was also exported, and it was thanks to this circumstance that the elections against communism in Slovakia were so successful, as I was told. The price totaled 80,000 Swiss francs, which Dr. Fabry paid in cash from his own resources. During the negotiations, I got to know Dr. Fabry as a good patriot and friend of Switzerland.
“Rudolf Frastacky – chief representative of the Union of Small Farmers’ Mutual Savings Banks and one of the significant figures in the Agrarian Movement from the end of the thirties and first half of the forties, was one of the personalities from Slovak economic and political life, who spent the rest of his life in exile, because of the changed political conditions after February 1948.”
[…]
“His position in companies representing Slovak sugar abroad enabled him to make regular business trips abroad, especially to Switzerland. As one of the representatives of the civil wing of the anti-fascist struggle during the Second World War, he used his legal trips abroad to establish courier contacts with foreign resistance elements. Together with Jaromir Kopecky, a member of the Czechoslovak legation to the League of Nations in Geneva, he built on Swiss soil one of the most intensive and widest links between the leadership of the domestic resistance on one side and the Czechoslovak government in exile in London on the other.”
The undersigned Rudolf Frastacky, elected Vice President of the the Slovak National Council and the National Government, and President of the Official Slovak-Swiss Society, currently exiled in Toronto, where he is President of the Council of Free Slovakia in Canada, willingly declares:
I have known Dr. Pavel Fabry through his public activities since my younger years. His self-sacrificing contribution to the consolidation of the situation after World War 1, especially in the eastern part of Slovakia, was widely recognized, and this fact is also highlighted in books from this era. The Slovak encyclopedia (page 37) also commends this activity.
In particular, in the suppression of the Hungarian-Communist invasion under the leadership of Bela Kun and the notorious Rakosi, Dr. Fabry rendered great service as plenipotentiary commissioner of the government at the Eastern High Command of Slovakia, and since that time he has been considered an eminent enemy of communism.
After leaving government service, he devoted himself to his legal career, particularly representing industry, especially the agricultural sector. As Vice-President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Industrial Federation, he endeavored to comply with the wishes of the Swiss delegation in the trade agreements, particularly with regard to quotas for industrial agricultural products.
For the industry under his leadership as President of the association, he always imported the machinery, refrigeration systems, boilers, etc., from Switzerland.
When I founded the Slovak-Swiss Society, my ambition was to win Dr. Pavel Fabry’s cooperation, not only for the reasons mentioned above regarding his economic activities, but mainly because it was generally known that he was actually of Swiss descent, as his ancestors immigrated to what was then Upper Hungary – now Slovakia – and they themselves, as well as their descendants, played a considerable role in economic life, as well as spiritual and ecclesiastical life.
Dr. Fabry naturally took on this role with enthusiasm and self-sacrifice and was spontaneously elected as active vice president of this society – again for the reasons stated above. He hosted the society free of charge in his own premises in Tolstojgasse [Tolstoy Lane, Vienna, Austria], and the society’s written agenda was maintained by him or one of his employees. He contributed large sums (tens of thousands) to the budget. During visits by prominent Swiss personalities from the economic and scientific world, he made his house and his property available to the guests in Slovakia in order to fully achieve the goals of their trips, as these personalities always acknowledged with gratitude.
He placed particular emphasis on economic relations and supported them with all his might. I will give one example among others. When a shortage of malt arose in Switzerland in 1946/47, he ensured that the Slovak breweries provided large quantities of malt and malted barley from their own reserves in order to supplement the quotas for Switzerland.
Even if I cannot cite all his deeds, which he carried out in the context of his above-mentioned activity, I can declare with a clear conscience that Switzerland can be proud of this loyalty to the homeland of his ancestors.
Thanks to Miroslav Kamenik for translating this letter from Milan Fabry to his godparents Pavel and Olga/Maminka Fabry, and for research assistance, narrowing down the date of this letter to “8-12/1948.” Milan is giving explicit instructions to Maminka to help “Sveto” escape Czechoslovakia, using the same route as General Frantisek Moravec – famous for his role in the assassination of Nazi architect Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. Another new discovery, with Miroslav’s help, is that “Sveto” is another name for Pavel – likely a code name!
Dear Godmother!
After a quarter of a week in bed – I had some kind of angina, which I treated with cibazol so badly that I ended up feeling sick from it – I return to my letter from Friday, to which I have not received an answer to today.
1/ On Sunday or Monday, a gentleman will arrive from Frankfurt to Switzerland, whom you will surely know at least from his story and by name. He is General Mirko Vesel. I will briefly describe his background, if you do not know him. He comes from the Vesel family in Zvolen. His father was a lawyer and chairman of the board of directors of the former Slovak National Bank /before Pauliny/. My mother used to stay with them, when she was still single, while she worked in the aforementioned bank in Zvolen. General Vesel is the one who, as a lieutenant colonel under the Slovak State, prepared the uprising and led it. Then he flew to London. From there he returned and for Czechoslovakia held the position of Chief of the General Staff of Artillery at the Ministry of National Defense in Prague. He has now been retired and fled here to Germany about four months ago. He is a 100 percent man, both in terms of his past and character, but also in terms of his performance and courage. A soldier-general in his place, who has his own organization and his own people. He has several urgent matters in Switzerland, but he promised me with certainty that he would get in touch with you to discuss the matter of the Sveto with you. I had to at least briefly describe to him what was going on and roughly make a deal with him. The matter would look something like this: The general’s agent would visit a trustworthy and close person to Sveto in Bratislava /I was thinking of Mária Vorlová – if you have someone better and more discreet, tell the general/. The agent would give this person a password from you /e.g. Sveto is referred to by Viera… or something else/ and ask that this intermediary person agree with Sveto when he would like to and could go /early evening/. Mária would give Sveto’s message to the agent, who would call Sveto at the appointed hour, put him in a car and drive him to a certain place near Morava (MK: river Morava). Near Morava, you have to walk about 150m on our side. There will be a person with a boat ready to take both of them to the other side. On the Austrian side, it is necessary to walk 1.5 km to a village and from there, by taxi with a fake kenkarta (MK: ID card), which the agent will have ready, he will get to Linz via Vienna. From Linz, it would then be very easy to go to the US zone in Germany and to Frankfurt, where he could wait with us until the necessary documents for Switzerland are processed. It would be necessary to instruct the godfather (MK: he talks about Sveto, but not sure about “krstný” as godfather of Milan) to take a passport with him, perhaps even an invalid one, or an old one from the former Czechoslovakia. The financial cost of the trip is 30,000 CZK to be paid in Bratislava to the agent for the maintenance of the organization, which otherwise has no funds, and 25,000 CZK to be paid to the ferryman across Moravia on the Austrian side.
2/ I do not consider the possibility that I described to you in Friday’s letter to be so certain – but still a good one. This would involve our Czechoslovak organization being affiliated with an American intelligence organization. The liaison between these organizations and the head of the Czechoslovakbranch is made by MP Dr. Michal Zibrín, a former Bratislava lawyer. This organization does not want to give a description of the route for reasons of its own security and revealing the route. They only guarantee that it is a route through Austria /Vienna/ to Linz and from there a transfer to Frankfurt. They further guarantee that they will take Sveto along the best route, which they reserve only for eminent persons. The following have so far traveled this route: General of the Intelligence Service Moravec and Zibrín’s wife with their children. This is a journey of about three hours on foot. They demand that a password be given to Sveto and that USD150 be paid in advance. The company is trustworthy and as far as payment is concerned, they agree that the money (one hundred and fifty dollars) should be deposited by Wednesday with Rudek in Switzerland, or Dr. Pal Glaser – also Rudek’s address with the indication that it is for Dr. Zibrin. By Friday morning (ten o’clock) there must be a telegram in Frankfurt to my address with the following text: I agree stop money deposited stop signature. Their people are leaving for Slovakia from Frankfurt on Friday and by then I would have to show them such a telegram.
Godmother, I did everything I could, it’s up to you to decide. It’s certainly hard to make a decision in such cases. You probably don’t have anyone there to consult with either, and I can understand how hard it must be for you to stifle everything inside yourself, unable to talk, when even the closest person is so far away. For my part, I advise you once again to seek out Rudek, who knows both people well, and to make a decision with him. However, I consider it my duty to warn you that if nothing is done, you can’t count on something coming by itself – you need to act. And decide – no matter how difficult it is.
Yesterday I received a package or voucher from you. Thank you very much for it, you don’t even know how good something better sometimes feels. Otherwise, life goes on as usual – we have enough work, if only there was as much bread! But we can’t complain because we still have a beautiful life as refugees.
Hand kisses Your Milan
P.S. I gave to general the phone number to Genéve 2-91-92. Please wait for his call.
American patriots seen today at the “No Kings” protest, exercising their freedom of speech! Thank you to all the kind neighbors, all across America, who came out in support of each other and democracy!
Vlado 