Over 2,400 people apply for anti-communist resistance member status

More than 2,400 Czechs have applied to the Defence Ministry for the status of members of anti-communist resistance, a spokesman for the ministry said. Each application will be reviewed by the National Archive, the Archive of the Security Forces and the Institute for the Documentation and Investigation of Crimes of Communism before it is approved; the ministry will start granting the status in February. A deputy interior minister said that while some of the applicants included court verdicts in their applications to prove their anti-communist activities, others list their issues with the communist regime that are not related to resistance. Anyone granted the status of anti-communist resistance fighter will receive 100,000 crowns and their retirement pension, if lower than average, will increase to reach the country’s average pension.

Author: Jan Richter