Jan Rys-Rozsévač

Who was Jan Rys-Rozsévač?

Jan Rys-Rozsévač was a Czechoslovakian journalist and politician and leader of fascist organisation Vlajka.

Jan Rozsévač began to study medicine at a university but didn't finish his studies. In 1936 he joined Vlajka, a nationalistic organisation founded in 1930. At the time he adopted pen name Jan Rys. Under this name he published books "Židozednářství - metla lidstva" and "Hilsneriáda a TGM". After the Munich Agreement in 1938, Vlajka was officially disbanded and Rys-Rozsévač imprisoned. He was released just before the rest of Czechoslovakia was occupied to became leader of Vlajka.

Rys-Rozsévač attempted to establish a mass fascist organization and helped to move Vlajka from traditional anti-German chauvinism to collaboration with Nazis and Gestapo. During 1939 - 1940 Vlajka organized mass meetings against politicians of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia as represented by Masaryk and Beneš. The German occupational authorities nevertheless decided to support a group of collaborators around Emanuel Moravec, his political competitor.