Adolf Branald: The hospital train. A play from the feverish days of the Prague May Revolution

At the beginning of May 1945, a German hospital train stands at one of the Prague railway stations. It is under the protection of the International Red Cross and its crew, although there are also able-bodied and armed soldiers in addition to the wounded and sick, inviolability is guaranteed. Part of the staff wants to surrender to the rebels who have taken over the rest of the station, part is determined to fight to the last man. And the tide is long on their side… Listen online for four weeks after broadcast.

In 1936, Branald joined the state railways, where, among other things, he worked as a telegraph operator or dispatcher. In the years 1939–1945, he worked in Prague at the Masaryk railway station, where he actively participated in illegal anti-occupation activities. He drew on this experience when writing the novels North Station and Hospital Train. It is the reflection of his personal experience, his knowledge of the environment and the ability to portray it authentically that is the greatest strength of the radio adaptation of the second of these novels. And this despite the fact that it is largely due to the view of the Prague Uprising in 1959.