Milena Jesenska

Milena Jesenská (1896, Prague - 1944, Ravensbrück, Germany) was a Czech journalist, writer and translator.

She was born in old aristocratic family of Slovakian origin, settled in Bohemia; her father was Jan Jesensky, professor of Prague University. Milena studied at Prague Girl Grammar School Minerva (absolved 1915). Between 1918-1925, she was married with Ernst Pollak and lived in Vienna. In early 1920s, her love-affair with Prague writer Franz Kafka started. This intellectual friendship lasted few years and was very important for both of them. In its time, 1920-23, Milena became journalist - Vienna contributor of Tribuna (daily newspaper in Prague and between 1923-26 Narodni Listy in Prague, and then magazines Pestry tyden and Lidove Noviny. Between 1938-1939 she was editor of famous political and cultural magazine Pritomnost published in Prague by Ferdinand Peroutka. After occupation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler's armies, Milena joined secret military resistance organisation. In 1939 she was arrested by Gestapo for it. Next year, she was deportated in concentration camp Ravensbrück, Germany, where she died in 1944.

Books: Cesta k jednoduchosti, 1926; Clovek dela saty 1927 etc. Selected essays of Pritomnost Magazine (1937-39) were published as a book posthumously.

Translations: Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Franz Werfel, F. C. Weiskopf and others.

Relatives: Jana Krejcarová - daughter of Milena and Jaromír Krejcar. Writer of underground edition Pulnoc in early 1950s. See Jesensky family article for more details.