Irena Bernášková

Irena "Inka" Bernášková (7 February 1904 – 26 August 1942) was a Czechoslovak journalist and resistance member who was active in the fight against the German occupation during World War II. She was the first Czech woman sentenced to death by the People's Court in Berlin.

Childhood and youth Bernášková was born in Prague as the second of three daughters of painter Vojtěch Preissig. During World War I, the family resided in Boston, United States. Their villa in Boston became an important center of meetings of politicians and statesmen fighting for Czechoslovak independence. Personalities such as Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik visited their house. Irena returned to Czechoslovakia along with her sisters in 1921. In 1925, in Prague, she married her cousin, František Bernášek. Her parents did not approve of the marriage and her father even cut off all contact with her for four years. Bernášková was the first Czech woman convicted and sentenced to death by the Nazis.

Aftermath In 1946, she was awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross, in memoriam. In 1998 she was posthumously awarded the Medal for Heroism by President Václav Havel.