Marína Paulínyová

Marína Paulínyová (; 28 March 1897 – 5 October 1945) was a Slovak-American diplomat, journalist, humanitarian and translator. She served as a deputy director of the Czechoslovak Red Cross.

Early life Paulínyová was born in Slovenské Pravno to a Lutheran family. When she was eight years old, the family emigrated to the United States for economic reasons. The family settled in Stamford, Connecticut. Although the family originally planned to return to Slovakia, they stayed mainly due to the sudden death of Paulínyová's father.

As a teenager, Paulínyová was active in helping Slovak immigrant workers find employment in America. After the independence of Czechoslovakia, she started working at the country's consulate in the US.

Interwar period On 30 May 1919 Paulínyová boarded a Red Cross ship in San Francisco bound to relieve Czechoslovak legionaries stranded in Siberia. The ship crashed and nearly sunk but its passengers including Paulínyová, who was on board as a nurse, were rescued by Japanese sailors. Paulínyová spent next three years organizing medical help for the legionaries and joined the final transport with injured legionaries to Czechoslovakia.

Death and legacy On 5 October 1945 a Consolidated B-24 Liberator plane, which took off from Blackbushe Airport with Paulínyová and other Czechoslovak passengers on board flying to Prague, crashed near Elvetham with no survivors. The victims of the crash are commemorated by a memorial at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England maintained by the Czech and Slovak embassies. In 2024 she was awarded the Cross of Milan Rastislav Štefánik 2nd class by president Zuzana Čaputová.