Milena Jesenská
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Milena Jesenská (; 10 August 1896 – 17 May 1944) was a
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...
journalist, writer, editor and translator.


Early life

Jesenská was born in
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
,
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
(now Czech Republic). Her family is believed to descend from
Jan Jesenius Jan Jesenius, also written as Jessenius (german: Johannes Jessenius, hu, Jeszenszky János, sk, Ján Jesenský; December 27, 1566 – June 21, 1621), was a Bohemian physician, politician and philosopher. Life Early years He was from an old nobl ...
, the first professor of medicine at Prague's Charles University who was among the 27 Bohemian luminaries executed in the
Old Town Square Old Town Square ( cs, Staroměstské náměstí or colloquially ) is a historic square in the Old Town quarter of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. It is located between Wenceslas Square and Charles Bridge. Buildings The square fe ...
in
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
on 21 June 1621 for defying the authority of the Habsburgs King Ferdinand II. However, this belief has been challenged as unfounded. Jesenská's father
Jan Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...
was a dental surgeon and professor at
Charles University in Prague ) , 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 ...
; her mother Milena Hejzlarová died when Milena was 16. Jesenská studied at Minerva, the first academic gymnasium for girls in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After graduation she enrolled briefly at the
Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory or Prague Conservatoire ( cs, Pražská konzervatoř) is a music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, Prague Conservatory offers four or six year study courses, which can be compared to the level ...
and at the Faculty of Medicine but abandoned her studies after two semesters. In 1918 she married Ernst Pollak, a Jewish intellectual and literary critic whom she met in Prague's literary circles, and moved with him to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
. The marriage, which allegedly caused her to break off relations with her father for several years, was an unhappy one.


Career

Since Pollak's earnings were initially inadequate to support the pair in the city's war-torn economy, Jesenská had to supplement their household income by working as a translator. In 1919 she discovered a short story (''The Stoker'') by Prague writer
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
, and wrote to him to ask for permission to translate it from
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
to
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...
. The letter launched an intense and increasingly passionate correspondence. Jesenská and Kafka met twice: they spent four days in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
together and later a day in Gmünd. Eventually Kafka broke off the relationship, partly because Jesenská was unable to leave her husband, and their almost daily communication ceased abruptly in November 1920. They meant so much to each other, however, that they did exchange a few more letters in 1922 and 1923 (and Kafka turned over to Jesenská his diaries at the end of his life). Jesenská's translation of '' The Stoker'' was a first translation of Kafka's writings into Czech (and as a matter of fact, into any foreign language); later she translated two other short stories by Kafka and also texts by
Hermann Broch Hermann Broch (; 1 November 1886 – 30 May 1951) was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: '' The Sleepwalkers'' (''Die Schlafwandler,'' 1930–32) and '' The Death of Virgil'' (''Der Tod des Vergil,'' 1945). ...
,
Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian- Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''The For ...
,
Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...
, and many others. Jaroslav Dohal, the name given for the translator of the Czech edition of Kafka's short-story "Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys", is most likely a pseudonym for Jesenská. In Vienna, Jesenská also began to write herself, contributing articles and later also
editorials An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such ...
to women's columns in some of the best known Prague dailies and magazines. For example, she contributed to ''
Tribuna ''Tribuna'' (russian: Трибуна) is a weekly Russian newspaper that focuses largely on industry and the energy sector. History Tribunas published its first publication in July 1969. Until 1990, the newspaper titled the ''Sotsialisticheska ...
'', and between 1923 and 1926, she wrote for ''
Národní listy ''Národní listy'' ("The National Newspaper") was a Czech newspaper published in Prague from 1861 to 1941. History The decision to start ''Národni listy'' began in September 1860. The first issue of the newspaper was first published in Januar ...
'', ''
Pestrý týden Pestrý týden was a Czech illustrated weekly magazine published from 2 November 1926 to 28 April 1945, during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republics and during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It helped establish top photo-reporters ...
'' and ''
Lidové noviny ''Lidové noviny'' (''People's News'', or ''The People's Newspaper'', ) is a daily newspaper published in Prague, the Czech Republic. It is the oldest Czech daily still in print, and a newspaper of record.Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...
architect
Jaromír Krejcar (25 July 1895, Hundsheim, Austria – 5 October 1950, London) was a Czech functionalistic architect, student of Jan Kotěra and member of Devětsil. He collaborated with Czech structural engineer, Dr. Jaroslav Josef Polivka on the internation ...
, with whom she had a daughter,
Jana Černá Jana Černá (14 August 1928, Prague – 5 January 1981, Prague), born Jana Krejcarová, called "Honza" was a Czech poet, writer, and editor of samizdat editions in Czechoslovakia. She was a daughter of the journalist Milena Jesenská (1896-1944) ...
. In Prague she continued working as a journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines, and also as children's books editor and translator. Some of her articles from the period were published in two separate collections by the Prague Publishing House ''Topič''. In the 1930s Jesenská became attracted to
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
(like many other Czech intellectuals of the period), but eventually abandoned her sympathies for the ideology altogether in 1936, when she grew aware of excesses of Stalinism. In October 1934 her second marriage ended - she gave a consent to divorce Krejcar so that he could marry a Latvian interpreter whom he met during his visit to the Soviet Union. Between 1938 and 1939 she edited the prestigious Czech magazine for politics and culture '' Přítomnost'' (The Presence), founded and published in Prague by the esteemed political commentator and democrat
Ferdinand Peroutka Ferdinand Peroutka (6 February 1895 – 20 April 1978) was a Czech journalist and writer. A prominent political thinker and journalist during the First Czechoslovak Republic, Peroutka was persecuted by the Nazi regime for his democratic convict ...
. Here she wrote editorials and visionary commentaries on the rise of the
NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
(
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
) in Germany, the
Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
of
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
to Nazi Germany and the possible consequences this was to have for
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
.


Death

After the
occupation of Czechoslovakia Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...
by the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
army, Jesenská joined an underground resistance movement and helped many
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
and political refugees to emigrate. She herself decided to stay, however, despite the consequences. In November 1939 she was arrested by the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
and imprisoned first in Prague's
Pankrác Pankrác is a neighborhood of Prague, Czech Republic. It is located south of the city centre on the hills of the eastern bank of the Vltava River and is part of the Prague 4 municipal district, situated in the district of Nusle. Bordering distric ...
and later in
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. In October 1940 she was deported to a concentration camp in Ravensbrück in Germany. Here she provided moral support to other prisoners and befriended
Margarete Buber-Neumann Margarete Buber-Neumann (21 October 1901 – 6 November 1989) was a German writer. As a communist, she wrote the memoir ''Under Two Dictators'' about her imprisonment within a Soviet prison, and later a Nazi concentration camp during World War ...
, who wrote her first biography after the war. Like other inmates, Jesenská was tattooed with an identity number in the camp - in her case the number was "4714". She nevertheless was given the nickname "
4711 4711 is a traditional German Eau de Cologne by Mäurer & Wirtz. Because it has been produced in Cologne since at least 1799, it is allowed to use the geographical indication ''Original Eau de Cologne''. The brand has been expanded to various oth ...
" (''"Siebenundvierzig-elf"'') by other detainees, a reference to a brand of
Eau de Cologne Eau de Cologne (; German: ''Kölnisch Wasser'' ; meaning "Water from Cologne"), or simply cologne, is a perfume originating from Cologne, Germany. Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in 1709, it has since come to be a g ...
which was at the time one of Germany's best known brands. Jesenská died of
kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...
failure, in Ravensbrück, on 17 May 1944.


Righteous Among the Nations

On December 14, 1994,
Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
recognized Milena Jesenská as
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...
.


Milena Jesenská's daughter

Jana "Honza" Krejcarová, the daughter of Jesenská and
Jaromír Krejcar (25 July 1895, Hundsheim, Austria – 5 October 1950, London) was a Czech functionalistic architect, student of Jan Kotěra and member of Devětsil. He collaborated with Czech structural engineer, Dr. Jaroslav Josef Polivka on the internation ...
, was a writer for the Czech
underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...
publication ''
Půlnoc Půlnoc (pronounced "pool-knots" and Czech for "midnight") was a Czech rock band established in 1988 by three members of the Plastic People of the Universe: Milan Hlavsa (bass guitar), Josef Janíček (keyboards), and Jiří Kabeš (violin and ...
'' in the early 1950s and for '' Divoké víno'' in the 1960s. In 1969 her biography of her mother was printed under the title ''Adresát Milena Jesenská''. "Written at a time when the new freedom that had dawned in
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
under Dubček was already doomed, it was rushed to the printer unedited and unchecked .. In the event it was too late to escape the clamp-down; the book never reached the Prague shops and only the odd copy was smuggled out of the country."


In music

Jesenská was the subject of a cantata for soprano and orchestra, entitled ''Milena'', by the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Ginastera's work was based on Kafka's letters.Alberto Evaristo Ginastera Biography
/ref> British Industrial musician Bryn Jones, under the moniker of
Muslimgauze Muslimgauze was the main musical project of Bryn Jones (17 June 1961 – 14 January 1999), a British ethnic electronica and experimental musician who was influenced by conflicts and history in the Muslim world, often with an emphasis on the Isra ...
, included a track named after her in his album Opaques. French singer songwriter,
Dominique A Dominique Ané (born 6 October 1968), better known as "Dominique A", is a French songwriter and singer. Early life Born on 6 October 1968 in Provins, France, Dominique Ané is the only child of a teacher and a homemaker. He was passionate about ...
, wrote a song dedicated to Milena Jesenská in the song "Milena Jesenská" of his 1998 single Ep "L'Attirance" (Ovni Records - Acuarela). American singer songwriter, Rhett Miller, mentions Milena in the song "Our Love" of his 2002 debut album "The Instigator". French-American musical group Moriarty referenced Milena in the song called "Za Milena J." of his 2015 album "Epitaph" and his relationship with Franz Kafka.


Notes


Works

''Anthologies of Jesenská's texts and articles published during her lifetime:'' * ''Cesta k jednoduchosti'' ("The Road to Simplicity"). Praha: Topič, 1926. * ''Člověk dělá šaty'' ("Man Makes Clothes"). Praha: Topič, 1927. ''Anthologies of Jesenská's texts, articles, and correspondence published after her death:'' * Ludmila Hegnerová, ed. ''Milena Jesenská zvenčí a zevnitř: Antologie textů Mileny Jesenské''. (Anthology of Jesenská's texts.) Praha: Prostor, 1996. * Václav Burian, ed. ''Nad naše síly: Češi, židé a Němci 1937-1939.'' (Articles published in Přítomnost). Olomouc: Votobia, 1997. * Kathleen Hayes, ed. ''The Journalism of Milena Jesenska: A Critical Voice in Interwar Central Europe.'' Translated from Czech and with an introduction by Kathleen Hayes. New York: Berghahn Books, 2003. * Alena Wágnerová, ed. ''Dopisy Mileny Jesenské''. (Jesenská's letters.) Prague: Prostor, 1998.


References

* Mary Hockaday. ''Kafka, Love, and Courage: The Life of Milena Jesenská''. New York: The Overlook Press, 1997. * Marta Marková-Kotyková. ''Mýtus Milena : Milena Jesenská jinak.'' Praha: Primus, 1993. * Alena Wágnerová. ''Milena Jesenská''. Prague: Prostor, 1996. * Jaroslav Dressler. "Kafkova Milena." Archa, 1982. * Alena Wágnerová. ''Dopisy Mileny Jesenské''. Prague: Prostor, 1998.
''Divoké víno''


Selected bibliography

*
Jana Černá Jana Černá (14 August 1928, Prague – 5 January 1981, Prague), born Jana Krejcarová, called "Honza" was a Czech poet, writer, and editor of samizdat editions in Czechoslovakia. She was a daughter of the journalist Milena Jesenská (1896-1944) ...
. ''Adresát Milena Jesenská'', Prague 1969. *
Jana Černá Jana Černá (14 August 1928, Prague – 5 January 1981, Prague), born Jana Krejcarová, called "Honza" was a Czech poet, writer, and editor of samizdat editions in Czechoslovakia. She was a daughter of the journalist Milena Jesenská (1896-1944) ...
. ''Kafka’s Milena'', London: Souvenir Books, 1988. * Mary Hockaday. ''Kafka, Love, and Courage: The Life of Milena Jesenská''. New York: The Overlook Press, 1997.

* Margarete Buber-Neumann. ''Milena: The Tragic Story of Kafka's Great Love.'' Arcade Publishing, 1997.

* Kafka, Franz. ''
Letters to Milena ''Letters to Milena'' is a book collecting some of Franz Kafka's letters to Milena Jesenská from 1920 to 1923. Publication history The letters were originally published in German in 1952 as ''Briefe an Milena'', edited by Willy Haas, who decided ...
''. Translated by Philip Boehm,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
: Schocken Books, 1990.


External links


Milena Jesenská Fellowships for Journalists
Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna – http://www.iwm.at

an

- two essays by Milena Jesenska (in Czech) online

– her activity to save Jews' lives during the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
, at
Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Jesenska Milena Czech translators Czech expatriates in Austria Czech Protestants Franz Kafka Austrian Righteous Among the Nations Writers from Vienna Protestant Righteous Among the Nations Journalists from Vienna People who died in Ravensbrück concentration camp Czechoslovak civilians killed in World War II 1896 births 1944 deaths Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Deaths from kidney failure Czech anti-communists Czech women writers 20th-century translators Czech columnists Czech women columnists