After World War II his wartime activities were criticized heavily, and he was put on trial for charges relating to collaboration with Nazi Germany.

[2] At that time, Barrandov Studios produced newsreels and propaganda films for the government of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as well as Czech productions.

[6][a] Ultimately cleared of the charges against him due to lack of evidence, he was nevertheless banned from working in the film industry as "morally unfit", and Barrandov Studios was nationalized.

[5] Havel left the country a second time in 1952, ultimately settling in Munich where he filed suit against UFA GmbH for not paying for its wartime use of Barrandov.

In a review of Havel's biography, Anna Batistová wrote that "His short membership in the National Fascist League, his connections to Freemasons, Czech and German intelligence, and the disclosure of one of his friends as a double agent just add to the ambiguity, which, on the one hand, does not allow us to paint his character simply black or white.