Inka Bernášková

Irena Bernášková was a prominent Czech resistance fighter and the first Czech woman executed by the Nazis during World War II. She was born on 7 February 1904 in Prague as the middle daughter of the graphic artist and painter Vojtěch Preissig. She was named Irena, but no one called her anything other than Inka. She spent her childhood in Boston, USA, as her father was involved in politics and worked for the New York branch of the Czechoslovak National Council.

After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, Inka and her two sisters returned home. She was an excellent student, despite some struggles due to her bilingual upbringing, and dreamed of becoming a military pilot, but regulations did not allow women to serve at that time. Inka later married Evžen Bernášek.

Even before the Nazi occupation, Inka Bernášková was actively involved in public life. After the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, she participated in the publication and distribution of the illegal magazine V boj, in which she translated and transcribed news and speeches of statesmen from foreign radio and also informed the public about real events. On a hidden note from prison, she stated she was not so foolish as to think she could prevent the German onslaught, but wanted to give desperate people some hope.

Her defiance grew so intense that she sent every issue of the magazine to the Gestapo’s Prague office in Petschek Palace. She also successfully ferried soldiers and former legionnaires across the border to fight against Nazism. Despite anonymous warnings that the Gestapo was after her, she did not emigrate, which later proved fatal.

In 1940, she was arrested by the Gestapo — but allegedly she did not just give in and fought the Gestapo during her arrest. After harsh interrogation, torture and imprisonment, she was sentenced to death in 1942 for treason and aiding. Her bravery and silence during interrogations saved three hundred resistance fighters.

When the Berlin tribunal sentenced her to death, she wrote home that she was “engaged to death.” On August 26, 1942, at only 38 years old, she was guillotined in Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.