Karel Kaplan  Karel Kaplan (born 28 August 1928, Horní Jelení) is a Czech historian, who specialized in the World War II and post World War II periods in Czechoslovakia. He has written books about Czech political trials during the 1950s, the situation of Jews in Central Europe during World War II, the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia. During the Prague Spring in 1968, he worked in the Committee of rehabilitation. He accessed classified documents of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ). After the end of Prague Spring, Karel Kaplan fell into disgrace. He worked in a factory from 1972 to 1976, and in 1976 asked for political asylum in Munich. He started to publish his works there, and in 1990 went back to Czechoslovakia. He continues his academic research in Prague.