“In order to ensure peace, armaments on land, in the air and at sea must usually be increased. What to do —that's right. But suppose it were just as common and self-evident to say: In order to ensure peaceful coexistence in our office, I will take a loaded revolver with me. To ensure peace on our street, I stuff hand grenades into my pockets. It would be a strange world. It is a strange world.“

Lidové noviny, January 1938

His father, Dr. Antonín Čapek, served as a military doctor on the recruitment committee, but neither of his sons was conscripted during the First World War. The older, Josef, was exempted due to severe myopia —up to eight dioptres. The younger, Karel Čapek, was diagnosed with “tuberculosis of the spine“, which was later correctly identified as Bechterew‘s disease, also known as “wooden spine“.

Although he was not a soldier and was a humanist by conviction, Karel Čapek never doubted or underestimated the importance of military service in establishing and defending Czechoslovakia—in the fight of good against evil. His deep respect for the legions and his speech to the soldiers on the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Zborov remain a testament to that belief.

In 1937, writer Jaroslav Durych launched a personal attack on Karel Čapek, writing: „I am a military doctor. Men are divided into three groups for me—A, B, and C—according to their fitness for military service. Over the years, I have learned that each of these groups has its own morality, A, B, and C. I read Karel Čapek not as a writer, but as a military doctor. I recognize his C and I am afraid (...) of the morality of the unfit, with which our nation is overflowing.“

Čapek responded: “To what letter of military classification and morality does an active lieutenant colonel belong, who so ostentatiously shows contempt for those who regard political and insurgent generals as an undesirable phenomenon—waging war against the elected government of their country with foreign help?“

At that time, the Spanish Civil War was raging, with Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union unofficially involved. Western democracies, by contrast, chose not to intervene. In Czechoslovakia, the prevailing sentiment was captured in the phrase: “They are fighting for Prague in Madrid.“

Karel Čapek devoted the final four years of his life primarily to anti-war works, including the novel War with the Newts (1936) and the plays The White Disease (1937) and Mother (1938). He masterfully portrayed the psychology of solidarity and the closeness of male collectives—such as miners‘ gangs and military units—in The First Gang (1937).

The White Disease, which explores a small nation’s confrontation with totalitarian power, clearly alluded to Hitler’s growing threats. At the urging of his friends, Čapek softened the drama’s pessimistic tone for the film adaptation. In the film, a new character, dr. Martin, provides the nation, reminding us of a biblical David, with a powerful weapon: the secret cure for a deadly pandemic. Even the Marshal, the leader of an aggressive power contracts the “white disease“. Will he sacrifice his life for peace?

In the critical weeks leading up to the Munich Agreement in 1938, Čapek actively contributed to journalism, participated in informal talks with the German ambassador in Prague, provided his Škoda Rapid car to the Czechoslovak military during mobilization, and worked closely with the Czechoslovak Ministry of Propaganda, headed by Hugo Vavrečka, the grandfather of future president Václav Havel.

Immediately after the Munich Agreement, on October 3, 1938, Čapek declined an offer from the daughter of Thomas Mann, a Nobel Prize-winning author, to flee to the safety of the United States. For years, he had himself assisted anti-fascist refugees, including the Mann family, for years. He responded with words that echoed, 84 years later, those of Ukrainian President Zelensky follwowing the Russian invasion: “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.“  

Čapek’s parting message, as later recalled by Erika Mann in New York two weeks after Čapek’s death, was: “Seek recruits for us across the sea. I beg you; and when I am no longer here tell the Americans that Czechoslovakia should not be allowed to perish.“