Karel Curda (10 October 1911 – 29 April 1947) was a Czech Nazi collaborator during World War II. Curda was initially a member of the Czechoslovak Resistance, but he betrayed the Operation Anthropoid plotters in exchange for money and protection.
Biography[]
Karel Curda was born in Neu Lahm, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Nova Hlina, Bohemia, Czech Republic) on 10 October 1911, and he served in the Czechoslovak government-in-exile's army after fleeing Czechoslovakia during World War II. Curda was parachuted into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1942 with other British-trained Czechoslovak paratroopers, and he was sent to assist with Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich. Curda was hesitant to take part in the operation, as he feared that his family would be murdered by the Nazis if Heydrich was murdered. Curda was not present during the attempt on Heydrich's life by the other conspirators, and he decided to betray his co-conspirators in exchange for 1,000,000 Reichsmarks. Curda gave up the family of Alois and Marie Moravcova, who housed the resistance members, and their son Ata Moravec was tortured into giving up the hideaway of Jozef Gabcik, Jan Kubis, and the other parachutists. Curda was tortured at first, but he was later paid by the Germans and given a new identity. He married a German woman and worked as a Gestapo informant for the rest of the war. In 1947, he was captured, tried for treason by the Czechoslovakian government, and executed.