Jan Valenta collection

Jan Valenta was born in May of 1894 near Vyškov, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). He graduated from high school in Bučovice, but his university studies were interrupted by the First World War. At the age of 21, Jan was taken prisoner of war on the Russian front in 1915, and later entered the Czech Legion in Russia. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1920 with the grade of Senior Lieutenant of the First Regiment M.J. Hus and was decorated with 1918 Czechoslovakia War Cross with the order of the Falcon of Swords and with the Revolutionary War Medal for Victory. Jan first served in České Budějovice with the Regiment of M.J. Hus, then at the State Military Command in Prague and in Brno. He also served in Brno as Chief of Staff of the Sixth Division. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, Jan took on an active role in the Czechoslovakian resistance organization, Obrana Národa (“Defense of the Nation”), an anti-Nazi movement comprised primarily of Czechoslovakian military and intelligence officers. In October 1941, Jan was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned Kounic Hall of Residence in Brno, which was used as a prison beginning in 1940. He was convicted of high treason held there until he was executed by a firing squad on June 21, 1942. The newspaper "Lidove Noviny" reported that he was killed in retaliation for the assassination of Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. After the war, Jan was promoted to Colonel retroactively and was awarded the 1939 Czechoslovak War Cross “In Memorial.”

Vladimir Valenta is the son of Jan Valenta and was born in 1923. Vladimir was 18 years old at the time of his father’s execution. Vladimir attempted to visit his father in prison, but his request was denied. After Jan’s death, Vladimir was deported to Strasshof an der Nordbahn in Austria, where he was selected for military service and baked bread with a unit. Vladimir ultimately escaped and immigrated to the United States in 1957.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

The Jan Valenta collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 by the Valenta family, which includs Jan’s son, Vladimir and grandchildren, John and Helen.