Rudolf Margolius (31 August 1913 – 3 December 1952) was a Czech lawyer and economist,[1] Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, Czechoslovakia (1949–1952), and a co-defendant in the Slánský trial in November 1952.

Imprisoned by the Nazis in the Lodz ghetto and several concentration camps, he survived the Holocaust and joined the Czechoslovak Communist Party, working as an economist.

The destruction of the Czechoslovak Communist high-ranking party officials by their own colleagues has defied attempts to rationalize it, and our understanding of the affair remains superficial.

As a law student in the thirties at Charles University, studying together with the Czech poet Hanuš Bonn, he devoted much of his time to the YMCA travelling in Western Europe, Middle East and America.

[5] In December 1945 he joined the Czechoslovak Communist Party influenced by his war experiences and murder of his parents and relatives in the concentration camps and hope of instituting better future for the country.

In 1949 in London Margolius negotiated and signed several important economic and financial agreements with Ernest Bevin and Sir William Strang who represented the British Government.

After months of physical and psychological coercion in addition to being forced to sign a false confession, Margolius met for the first time his alleged conspirators led by Rudolf Slánský at the Czechoslovak High Court attached to the Pankrác Prison in Prague in November 1952.

"[11][12] The Scotsman reported on 16 May 1968:Czechoslovak President Ludvík Svoboda has awarded the Order of the Republic posthumously to Rudolf Margolius, former Deputy Foreign Trade Minister executed in 1952 after the Stalinist Slánský trial.

Margolius was accused of being a member of the “anti-party conspiratorial centre,” and was sentenced to death along with former Party Secretary Rudolf Slánský and nine others on November 27, 1952.

[15] Medium.Seznam.cz published an article on December 1st, 2023 stating: "... On the other hand, there were personalities like Rudolf Margolius, who was a pure technocrat, and about whom one can say with a clear conscience that he was completely innocent.

"[16] Petr Mallota et al in the book Popravení z politických důvodů v komunistickém Československu (Persons executed for political reasons in Communist Czechoslovakia) published in November 2024, confirmed Margolius' party non-activity as follows: "...