František Wiendl, anti-Nazi and anti-communist resistance fighter, dies at 102

František Wiendl, a Czech resistance fighter who opposed both the Nazi occupation and the communist regime, has died at the age of 102. His death was announced on Saturday by the Memory of Nations project, with his family saying he passed away late on Friday in a Prague hospital.

During the Second World War, Wiendl took part in the anti-Nazi resistance. After the communist takeover in 1948, he helped 28 people flee across the border to the West before being arrested in 1949. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason and spent a decade behind bars, including six years performing forced labour in the uranium mines of Jáchymov.

Following the Velvet Revolution, Wiendl was rehabilitated and became honorary chairman of the Confederation of Political Prisoners, helping preserve the memory of those persecuted under the communist regime.