Karel Svoboda (table tennis)

Karel Svoboda was born in Brno on 6 July 1913.^[1] His parents were Karel Svoboda and Josefa Svobodová (Berková) and he had one sister, Marie Svobodová. He represented Czechoslovakia in tennis and table tennis from 1931 through 1935.^[2] He won a bronze medal at the 1931 World Table Tennis Championships in the men's doubles with Jindřich Lauterbach.^[3] He also won four consecutive team event silver medals from 1931 to 1935.^[4] After his studies, Svoboda served with an artillery regiment in Olomouc and returned home in the fall of 1938. He looked for a job for a year, then worked for three months at the West Moravian Electric Power Plant.

In February 1940, Svoboda was arrested as a member of the Obrana národa resistance organization. He was imprisoned in Brno in the Kounice dormitories, and later in Wrocław, Wołów and Dietz^[where?]. He was brought before the court at Frankfurt on 27 October 1942, along with his friend Richard Peřina. Svoboda was sentenced to death and was executed on 3 March 1943.^[1]

His remains, along with those of other executed people, was transported from Frankfurt to Brno and buried with military honors on 7 September 1967 at the Brno Central Cemetery. He received the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 in memoriam.^[1]

• List of table tennis players
• List of World Table Tennis Championships medalists