Memoáry nejednoznačného pamětníka i "dějiny Háchy v době"
Memoirs of an ambiguous contemporary witness and the "history of Hácha in the period context"

Summary/Abstract: Josef Kliment (1901–1978) was a lawyer, legal historian and public servant; in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, he was the political and press secretary of President Emil Hácha (1872–1945) from the autumn of 1941 till the spring of 1944, and then became the Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court. He was arrested after the war and sentenced to life by the National Court in 1947. He was amnestied and released from prison in 1960. The reviewer presents an edition of Kliment’s extensive work titled "With the sacrificed president", with subtitle "Bitter memoirs of Hácha’s secretary" (Prague: Academia, 2019), which dates back to the 1970s and is a combination of memoirs, a historical treatise, and Hácha’s fragmentary biography. He explains the historical context of Kliment’s work for the Office of the State President, specified the nature of Kliment’s relations with President Hácha, analyzes the source value of the work and credibility of Kliment’s statements, taking into account the selfstyling of Kliment as a contemporary witness and a historical player in one person, who captured events taking place in the troubled times of the German occupation and spent a long time in prison for his attitudes during the occupation. In the reviewer’s opinion, Kliment’s work and fate how thin the dividing line between the strategy of the nation’s defence and collaboration could be. In spite of having some reservations concerning the publisher Václav Velčovský's approach to Kliment’s work, the reviewer believes that the publication represents an extraordinarily praiseworthy deed.

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