Přemysl Šámal - Hlava Maffie a kancléř prezidentů – Čechurová Jana (2025)

This book presents the first comprehensive account of the life of Přemysl Šámal (1867–1941) and his family. A Prague lawyer, Šámal became one of the leading figures of interwar Czechoslovakia. During the First World War, he headed the secret organisation known as the Maffie, and in late October 1918 he took part in negotiations in Geneva between representatives of the foreign and domestic resistance. After the establishment of the independent republic, he became head of Prague, but in early 1919 accepted T. G. Masaryk’s offer to lead the presidential office. For the next nineteen years, he served as chancellor to Presidents Masaryk and Beneš, acting as a discreet yet crucial coordinator of the personal relationships and networks of influence that made the Castle a centre of power outside the official political structures. After the Munich Agreement and Beneš’s abdication, Šámal resigned as chancellor and withdrew from public life, but he refused to accept the occupation of post-Munich Czechoslovakia. In summer 1939, he became head of the anti-Nazi underground organisation the Political Centre. Although his leadership was largely formal and symbolic, based on the authority of the former head of the Maffie, the Gestapo arrested him in January 1940. After more than a year of suffering in Nazi prisons, where he fell seriously ill, he died in internment in Berlin-Tempelhof on 9 March 1941. The fate of Šámal’s family was also tragic: his only son, Jaromír Šámal, was executed as a hostage during the first days of the Heydrich terror, his daughter-in-law spent the entire war in concentration camps, and his grandchildren Jiří and Alena were placed for “re-education” with a family in Germany. After liberation, both children were located and returned home to their mother. The authors draw on contemporary accounts from people in Šámal’s circle and, above all, on surviving archival sources, a selection of which is included in this book. The contents are in Czech.