ABSTRACT
Show trials are predetermined judgments which are widely publicized and have propagandistic goals. The core of the victim’s character is falsely smeared, and the victim is publicly shamed. Assassination of character is often finalized by victim’s physical execution. Show trials are symptomatic of totalitarian societies – political or religious. They are the ultimate in cruelty and also by their impact on the whole nation as conformists’ and bystanders’ characters tend to be also mutilated (even ‘assassinated’) in the process. The chapter includes the show trial case of a Czech democrat Milada Horakova, illustrates the related psychological campaign and analyses psychology of the oppressed and of the bystanders.
