František and Jarmila Nejezchleba

Jarmila Nejezchlebová, née Pešková, was born in Prague on March 12, 1903. She finished primary and junior secondary school, and continued her studies at an industrial school. František Nejezchleba was born at Syrovín, in the Hodoním district, on November 30, 1898; his father was a carpenter. As a student, he fought in the First World War. Immediately after returning from the war, he entered the Faculty of Medicine of Prague’s Charles University. In February 1924, he graduated as a doctor of general medicine. The wedding of Jarmila and František took place in the district of Libeň in Prague on July 24, 1923. A daughter named Zdenka was born to the married couple. Jarmila Nejezchlebová joined the ranks of the anti-Nazi resistance movement in 1939, as a member of the group led by Emil Schneeberger (1900–1942). Her task was to pass reports of espionage character, which were then carried by an authorized person to Yugoslavia, and from there further to the Czechoslovak military and government officials in exile. However, the Gestapo arrested Emil Schneeberger and some of his underground colleagues in May 1940. Sentenced to death by the People’s Court of Justice, they were executed. Jarmila Nejezchlebová had escaped detection and carried on her resistance activities, this time in connection with the group known as The Three Magi, part of the Defense of the Nation organization. She kept gathering information for the group, and from October 1940 onward, she allegedly hid the group’s radio transmitter for six months. But shortly afterward, following the arrest of the second of the Three Magi, the Gestapo also detained Jarmila in May 1941. Her detention began in Prague’s Pankrác Prison.

She was then moved to the German women’s prison Gotteszell on June 20, 1941. Jarmila spent more than a month in the court prison Schwäbisch Gmünd, but due to her serious health condition she was released on February 1942. Since her arrest warrant had been valid until October 1942, a special court in Prague sentenced her to a 10-month imprisonment for treason and high treason. The entire sentence was removed from the total duration of her custody, resulting in her release. Even then Jarmila Nejezchlebová did not stay long on the sidelines, rejoining the resistance movement after a short break. She helped to hide the members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia sought by the Gestapo, obtaining food for them and supporting them financially. Moreover, she mediated contacts between Jaroslav Syrůček, a member of the Preparatory Revolutionary National Committee, arrested by the Germans, and his colleagues. It was Jan Höfer, a guard in the Pankrác Prison, who helped to arrange such contacts. But after his detection, Jarmila Nejezchlebová herself was detained again on October 19, 1944, and taken to the Police Prison in Terezín’s Small Fortress. Dr. František Nejezchleba got involved in the anti-Nazi resistance in 1939.

He kept in touch with the members of the Prague cell of the underground Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He provided them with financial assistance, offering them overnight refuge, gathering information for them, giving them medical treatment and secretly distributing communist press. After his wife returned from jail, he also worked with her for the Preparatory Revolutionary National Committee. Nejezchleba managed to pursue these selfless activities until October 1, 1944, when the Gestapo came to arrest him. His involvement had been discovered after the arrest of his wife. First, he spent over a month in the Pankrác Prison, and then was transported to the Small Fortress Terezín on November 7, 1944. Assigned to cell No. 14, František Nejezchleba initially worked in labor commandoes with other inmates before becoming a treating physician at the sick bay (Krankenrevier) in December 1944. He took care of sick fellow prisoners, treating non-infectious and primarily contagious diseases like dysentery, diphtheria, enteric fever, and the most insidious spotted fever caused by poor hygiene in the Fortress. During their time in prison, Jarmila and František Nejezchleba remained optimistic and tried to help other fellow inmates as much as they could. Towards the end of the war, an epidemic of spotted fever broke out in the Small Fortress. Physicians and other medical personnel of the Czech Help Action were allowed to enter Terezín on May 4, 1945 and immediately got to work. The inmates in the Women’s Courtyard turned out to be free from infection, and that was why all the women, including Jarmila Nejezchlebová, were taken to the Terezín Ghetto later that day. František Nejezchleba volunteered to care for his patients when the prison guards and the SS guard unit left the Small Fortress on May 5, 1945. After the camp’s liberation, his wife came back to Terezín and helped in the kitchen. Both husband and wife stayed until May 13, 1945. In recognition of their merits, they later received the distinction – the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939. The Terezín Memorial collection today includes many interesting artifacts from the estate of František and Jarmila Nejezchleba, dating back to their imprisonment in the Small Fortress. Some of them were made by Jarmila Nejezchlebová herself – an egg-shaped pin cushion (PT 2884) and a small embroidered bag made of cloth (PT 13933). We may assume that the remaining artifacts were gifts to František Nejezchleba from his fellow inmates as shows of gratitude for medical treatment. The selected exhibits are on display at this exhibition.