General Jaroslav Konečný

General Jaroslav Konečný

(January 4, 1891 – January 20, 1943)

He was born in Kylešovice near Opava. He was a member of the Czechoslovak legions in Russia, where he served in the ranks of the 2nd Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment until the spring of 1920. After his return, he joined the Czechoslovak Army, graduated from the war school and served as chief of staff and commander of several military units. Before the occupation of Czechoslovakia, he served as a temporary commander at the Garrison Headquarters in Pilsen; in the autumn of 1938, he was stationed with Infantry Regiment 14 in Slovakia; after the establishment of the Slovak State, he returned to the Protectorate and immediately became involved in the activities of the military resistance organisation called Obrana národa. There, he worked as a co-organizer of the Regional Headquarters of Obrana národa – West Bohemia, and, after moving to Prague, he became a collaborator of the Regional Headquarters of Obrana národa – Greater Prague.

On July 25, 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned first in Prague at Pankrác, then, in the summer of 1942 he was transferred to Dresden and, from there, on October 3, 1942, to Alt Moabit Prison in Berlin. During the trial before the Berlin People's Court, he was sentenced to death five days later, together with Colonel Jaroslav Lisý, for treason and treachery. After the trial, he was transferred to the Berlin-Plötzensee prison, where he was executed at 8.12 p.m. on January 20, 1943. In 1947, he was posthumously promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.