Zachránce z české obce Kupičov na Volyni – k životním osudům evangelického duchovního Jana Jelínka
| Pages | 5–14 |
|---|---|
| DOI | 10.37520/amnph.2019.002 |
| Keywords | Jan Jelínek, World War II, rescue of Jews, Volyhynian Czechs, anti-communist, post-White-Mountain exile |
| Type of Article | Peer-reviewed |
| Citation | KLOČKOVÁ, Lenka a ŠTÉR, Roman. Zachránce z české obce Kupičov na Volyni – k životním osudům evangelického duchovního Jana Jelínka. Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia. Prague: National Museum, 2019, 73(1-2), 5–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/amnph.2019.002. ISSN 2570-6845 (print), 2570-6853 (online). Also available from: https://publikace.nm.cz/en/periodicals/acta-musei-nationalis-pragae-historia/73-1-2/zachrance-z-ceske-obce-kupicov-na-volyni-k-zivotnim-osudum-evangelickeho-duchovniho-jana-jelinka |
The purpose of this text is to map out the vicissitudes in the life of the Evangelical clergyman Jan Jelínek on the basis of the sources available, in a bid to foster awareness of this prominent personage in the public realm and preserve his memory for future generations. Jan Jelínek was born in 1912 in Zelov (present-day Poland) to Czech exiles. Initially he worked as an accountant in the Jan Sláma company in Zelov, later graduating from the Missionary School in Olomouc and becoming a preacher. In the years 1937 – 1944 he served as preacher in the Czech village of Kupičov in Volhynia. During World War II he helped the persecuted, hiding Jews from the Germans, and Ukrainians and Poles from Bandera’s followers. In 1944 he and his wife joined the First Czechoslovak Army Corps in the USSR. In January 1958 he was arrested by the StB (the secret police of the Communist Czechoslovak state), and following three months of detention on remand, was sentenced to two years in prison for sedition and opposition to the establishment of the JZD (a network of Czech collective farms). He was released in 1960. Until his retirement in 1972, he worked as a labourer in the Paints and Varnishes company. Jan Jelínek died in Prague in 2009. On 28 October 2019 president Miloš Zeman posthumously decorated him with the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Class I.
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