| Zoe Klusáková-Svobodová | |
| Birth Name: | Zoe Klusáková |
| Birth Date: | 4 December 1925 |
| Birth Place: | Uzhhorod, Czechoslovakia |
| Alma Mater: | Czech Technical University in Prague |
| Occupation: | Economist, academic, translator |
| Spouse: | (m. 1949–1992; his death) |
| Parents: | Ludvík Svoboda |
Zoe Klusáková-Svobodová (4 December 1925 – 12 December 2022) was a Czech economist, academic, writer and translator. She was the daughter of Ludvík Svoboda, the President of Czechoslovakia from 1968 to 1975, and the widow of Czechoslovak diplomat, .[1] [2] [3]
Klusáková-Svobodová was born in the city of Uzhhorod, Czechoslovakia (present-day Ukraine), on 4 December 1925.[1] She was the youngest of two children, including her older brother, Miroslav. Her father, Ludvík Svoboda, was a general who would later become President of Czechoslovakia during the Communist era from 1968 to 1975. Her mother, (née Stratilová), became the First Lady of Czechoslovakia.[1]
Her father, General Ludvík Svoboda, went into exile during the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945) by Nazi Germany and the outbreak of World War II, while Zoe Klusáková-Svobodová remained in occupied Czechoslovakia with her mother and brother.[1] The entire family joined the Czechoslovak resistance to Nazi occupation, specifically aiding Czechoslovak and foreign paratroopers who landed near Dřínov.[1] However, the family and the larger resistance cell were discovered by the Gestapo, forcing Klusáková-Svobodová to flee into hiding in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands of southern Moravia from 1941 until the end of occupation in 1945.[1] She and her mother first lived in hiding in the village of Hroznatín before moving to Džbánice for the remainder of the war.[1] Her brother, Miroslav, was captured by the Nazis and died in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.[1]
Klusáková-Svobodová accounts of World War II and her involvement with the Czech resistance are archived in the Memory of Nations, an oral history initiative created by Post Bellum, a Czech nonprofit.[1]
Klusáková-Svobodová became an economist and a notable Czech-Russian translator. She taught at the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague.[1] She also devoted considerable effort to preserving the legacy of her parents, Ludvík Svoboda and Irena Svobodová, including as honorary chairwoman of the Ludvík Svoboda Society.[1] [2]
Her daughter, Czech historian, died in 2020.[3]