František Wiendl, honorary chairman of the Confederation of Political Prisoners of the Czech Republic, died on Friday at the age of 102. During World War II, he was a participant in the anti-Nazi and, after 1948, in the anti-communist resistance, writes TASR based on reports from the Novinky.cz and iDnes portals. Wiendl helped several dozen people who were persecuted by the communist regime to escape across the border. They sentenced him to eighteen years in prison. For his actions, he received, among other awards, the Order of TGM III. degree.
- František Wiendl, honorary chairman of the Confederation of Political Prisoners, died at the age of 102.
- Through Šumava, he took twenty-eight people threatened by the communist regime across the border.
The Memory of the Nation reported on Wiendl’s death on social networks. “A true hero who served ten years in communist camps and prisons for our freedom. An amazing, honest and principled guy with a great story,” the statement read. Wiendl was born on December 31, 1923 in Klatovy. “As a young man, he actively participated in the anti-Nazi resistance. After February 1948, he distributed anti-communist leaflets with his father and wrote the slogan ‘Death to Communism’ on walls in the city,” she wrote the Memory of the Nation.
He transported twenty-eight people who were in danger from the communists across the Šumava mountains to the Czechoslovak borders. For his actions, in 1950, together with 13 other people, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason. “Prison meant hope for life. I was only afraid of the death penalty,” Wiendl once said for the Memory of the Nation. He spent six years in the Jáchymov uranium mines. He was released in 1960.
After the Gentle Revolution, Wiendl was one of the founding members of the Confederation of Political Prisoners, and later became the chairman of its Klato branch. He was a holder of the TGM III Council. degree, prizes of the Memory of the Nation and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes for brave civil attitudes during the Nazi occupation and communist dictatorship.
