Josefina Napravilová (21 January 1914 – 19 February 2014) was a Czech humanitarian. She worked with child refugees after the Second World War. She was awarded the

Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk The Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk () is an order (decoration), Order of the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1990 after the Velvet Revolution, and re-established in 1994 (following the dissolution of Czechosl ...

in 2009.

Biography

Napravilová was born in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

in 1914. She started her most remarkable work after the Second World War when she began reuniting Czech children with their families after they had been separated by actions in the war. She would wander into camps and call out the Czech words for Mum and Dad to find out who answered. She reunited between thirty and forty children. Amongst these was Vaclav Hanf who had the dubious claim of being one of the few children to survive the extermination of the village of

Lidice Lidice (; ) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village, which was completely destroyed on 10 June 19 ...

in June 1942. He had been taken to Germany to be adopted by a German family at the age of eleven. He returned to find his village razed to the ground, his parents murdered but his sisters were miraculously alive. Other children had been moved to Germany after their parents had either been executed for involvement with the resistance or sent to concentration camps.Josefina Napravilová: an unsung Czech hero
David Vaughan, 2009, Radio Prague, retrieved 25 November 2014 In 1947 she moved to Vienna, where husband had been given stolen property. He only lived a short time and she worked for the

International Refugee Organization The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was an intergovernmental organization founded on 20 April 1946 to deal with the massive refugee problem created by World War II. A Preparatory Commission began operations fourteen months previously. ...

, where she was again assisting refugees but this time from communism. She moved to Canada in 1947 and after a career in banking she returned to her home country after the fall of the Soviet empire and she went to live in

Bechyně Bechyně (; ) is a town in Tábor District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,800 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, ur ...

. Her wartime exploits only came to notice because Vaclav Hanf remembered her pivotal role in his life. In 1995 she was awarded the

Class III in 2009. Napravilová lived to see her 100th birthday and died the following month in

Tábor Tábor (; ) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants, making it the second most populated town in the region. The town was founded by the Hussites in 1420. The historic town centre is well pres ...

in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Napravilova, Josefina 1914 births 2014 deaths People from Plzeň Czech bankers Czech activists Czech women activists Czech women centenarians Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Czechoslovak emigrants to Canada Women bankers