Veleslav Wahl (15 May 1922, Prague - 16 June 1950, Prague) was a Czech
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
and
resistance
Resistance may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Comics
* Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm:
** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title
** ''T ...
activist who was executed in 1950.
He was named after his father, a Prague lawyer, who was born in 1891 and killed in 1942 by the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
. As a child Veleslav went to a local grammar school in Pankrác at Bělá pod Bezdězem. He also worked in the zoo at Prague from 1941 to 1944 while also working in the underground
Czech resistance
Resistance to the German occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II began after the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the formation of the protectorate on 15 March 1939. German policy deterred acts of ...
. When the war ended he studied law at
Charles University
)
, image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg
, image_size = 200px
, established =
, type = Public, Ancient
, budget = 8.9 billion CZK
, rector = Milena Králíčková
, faculty = 4,057
, administrative_staff = 4,026
, students = 51,438
, undergr ...
. He was also active in the
Prague uprising
The Prague uprising ( cs, Pražské povstání) was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of o ...
as a student activist. He established an anti-communist organization along with
Jaromír Nechanský which collaborated with the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
, particularly the American secretary Walter Birge who was posted to the Prague embassy. For this he was arrested in 1949 and sentenced to death after a trial. The Wahl-Nechanský trial also led to the Czechoslovakian government notifying the Americans that their embassy was too large due to their espionage activities and ordered them to reduce it to a third of its size. His wife, Tatiána Růžičková, was also kept under arrest and she later moved to the United States.
A memorial to Wahl and others executed and tortured from the 1950s was established at
Ďáblice
Ďáblice is a municipal district (''městská část'') and cadastral area (''katastrální území'') in Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the ...
, Prague, and in 2000, he was posthumously awarded the Honorary Medal of
T.G. Masaryk TG or Tg may stand for:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* The Gathering (computer party), the second largest computer party in the world
* Travian Games, a German video game development and publisher company
Television
* Telegiornale (disambiguatio ...
by the Masaryk Democratic Movement. In 1995 he was posthumously decorated with the
Order of the White Lion (Civil Division, Second Class).
In 2017, a memorial plaque was installed on the Swedish embassy where he had lived before his execution.
Wahl wrote a landmark work on the birds of Prague (''Pražské ptactvo''), published first in 1944 with a second edition in 1945.
References
External links
"Last address" plaque project in 2017
Czechoslovak ornithologists
Recipients of the Order of the White Lion
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