Irena Bernášková

Irena Bernášková (born February 7, 1904 in Prague ; † August 26, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee ), also known as Irena Preissigová-Bernášková or by numerous aliases, was a Czech resistance fighter in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . For her involvement in the illegal magazine V boj she was sentenced to death and executed in the Berlin-Plötzensee prison.

Life

Irena Bernášková was the second daughter of the Czech artist and later resistance fighter Vojtěch Preissig . After her father emigrated to the United States in 1910 , she attended elementary school there for a few years, where she became acquainted with racial discrimination. In 1921 she was sent back to Prague, together with her two sisters and her mother, her father, Vojtěch Preissig, came to Prague in 1930. Already in 1939, when he began to get involved in the resistance, and the first group around Josef Škalda to publish the magazine She edited and co-founded V boj , and helped with various tasks, including sales.

After the editorial team was arrested and destroyed, it was their father, Vojtěch Preissig, who was initially responsible for the publication of the magazine. Soon, however, it was the daughter Irena Bernášková who took on the technical infrastructure, sales organization and, above all, the editorial work, which she practically managed, and who took care of the publication of another 37 issues, some of which she produced herself.

On September 21, 1940, she and over 40 other people were arrested for the first time by the Gestapo; in April 1941, she and several other arrested persons from the group were transferred to Leipzig for further interrogation and in May 1941 to Dresden; her sister Yvona Preissigová , who could not be proven, was sent back to Prague and released there. From June the arrested were held in Bautzen until they were transferred to Berlin on February 13, 1942, where four of them - Irena Bernášková, Antonín Mádlo , Arnošt Ročně-Polavský and Milada Marešová - were charged with treason before the People's Court on March 5, 1942 were found guilty, with Irena Bernášková being the first ever Czech woman to be sentenced to death from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. On August 26, 1942, Irena Bernášková was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee.

swell

Blanka Jedličková, Ženy okolo ilegálního časopisu “V boj” 1939–1942 [women from the environment of the illegal magazine V boj 1939–1942], online at: dspace.upce.cz / ... (PDF; 5.3 MB), especially p. 53ff.
Inka Bernášková - statečná žena ze Spořilova, in: Spořilovské noviny of September 27, 2005, online at: www.sporilov.info/
Česká televize: Zasnoubena se smrtí, report on a broadcast on the ČT 2 TV channel on July 7, 2008, in: Spořilovské noviny on July 4, 2008, online at: www.sporilov.info/
Neznami hrdinove, a broadcast by the ČT24 TV channel on December 25, 2012, online at: www.ceskatelevize.cz / ... (at 6:30 p.m., 26 min).

Remarks

↑ The occasional statement that Preissig returned to Prague in 1913 or 1921 is obviously wrong. There are a number of documents on the Internet, including official documents, which prove that Preissig stayed in the USA until 1930 - s. for example www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/preissig ... about his work in Boston etc. What is certain is that Preissig sent his family to Prague earlier to come later.

personal data
SURNAME	Bernášková, Irena
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Preissigová-Bernášková, Irena; Jičínská (alias); Skálová (alias); Modrá (alias); Madame (alias); Američanka (alias)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Czech resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH	February 7, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH	Prague
DATE OF DEATH	August 26, 1942
Place of death	Berlin-Plötzensee

[1] The occasional statement that Preissig returned to Prague in 1913 or 1921 is obviously wrong. There are a number of documents on the Internet, including official documents, which prove that Preissig stayed in the USA until 1930 - s. for example www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/preissig ... about his work in Boston etc. What is certain is that Preissig sent his family to Prague earlier to come later.