The communist state security devoted great effort to compiling lists of Jews living in individual districts and to monitoring anyone who might be of “Jewish origin” - a neologism created by the communist authorities to cover up the application of the Nazi Nuremberg Laws on the racial inheritance of Jewishness to the population. According to advisors from Moscow, increased attention was to be paid especially to doctors and intellectuals.
Read the translation of a Czech document preserved in the Security Service Archives and answer the questions below.
Agent Report KS-MV Ústí nad Labem Name, registration number: ERIK Department, section: Most Date handed in: 27.2.1958 Officer, function: Lt. LOKVENC
ERBAN LADISLAV – Report: On 25 February 1958, Dr. HOFMAN told me that ERBAN had said he feels like a conscious nationalist Jew, and that HOFMAN feels the same way. Hofman replied that it makes no difference to him, Jew or non-Jew. ERBAN further said that he doesn’t feel comfortable in Most among non-Christians, and especially that in Prague, among his orthodox Jewish friends, he feels good.
The report concerns: Ladislav ERBAN, born 1915, head physician of the ENT department at the hospital in Most, resident of Most. Identified as a person of Jewish origin; his brother is in Israel. Herbert HOFMAN, born 1901, obstetrician at the District Health Institute in Most, resident of Most, Tylova 867. Identified as an old Social Democrat; served in the Western army.
Assignments for the collaborator: He was not given any new tasks, as this was an incidental interception. Own measures: The report will be used for the political processing of ERBAN. [signature] Lt. LOKVENC Oldřich District Department of the Ministry of the Interior, Most Received: 12 March 1958 Ref. No.: av-0500/312-58 Regional Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior, Ústí nad Labem Received: 21 March 1958 Ref. No.: B3-0970/312
Who, by whom, why and about what is being informed according to this record?