Dana Němcová, Czechoslovak dissident who stood up to evil, has passed away

Mrs. Němcová was one of the first Charter 77 signatories and subsequently its spokesperson. She co-founded the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS), the organization that aided victims of communist injustice.

A mother of seven and a trained psychologist, Mrs. Němcová had to face house searches, interrogations and persecution for her opinions about the regime. She was only allowed to work as a cleaning woman and a housekeeper, and she was also imprisoned.

After the 1989 Velvet Revolution she briefly served as a legislator in the Federal Assembly, but she mainly continued to defend human rights and to aid the powerless and the weak. Together with Olga Havel she was at the beginning of the Good Will Committee (Výbor dobré vůle), which to this day assists abandoned children, people living with disabilities, senior citizens and the sick.

In the year 1992 she established the Counseling Center for Refugees (Poradna pro uprchlíky) and six years later she was awarded the Medal of Merit. “Dana Němcová, a woman who lived a free and full life, passed away today in the early morning hours. At the age of 89 she was full of her days, as it is written. She was honest, brave, and always ready to do what was good and brave with all her heart and both of her hands. So many people were able to rely on her in difficult situations,” Sedláček, who has known Mrs. Němcová since 1970, reminisced about her.

Politicians remember Němcová as an exceptional figure

Politicians are calling Mrs. Němcová one of the outstanding figures of the Czechoslovak dissident movement, a person who was deeply human. According to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civic Democratic Party – ODS), she was an exceptional figure, brave and deeply human, who made a significant contribution to democracy and freedom through her consistent and persistent defence of human rights.

The Prime Minister paid homage to Mrs. Němcová on Twitter. Mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS) also tweeted: “She did not hesitate to stand up to evil with bravery and kindness. Honor to her memory and sincere condolences to the bereaved. There are never enough good people like her.”

The mayor called her an exceptionally brave, morally firm, extraordinary woman. The Memory of Nations (Paměť národa) project also reminisced on social media that both Mrs. Němcová and her husband had turned their apartment on Ječná Street in Prague into one of the informal centers of opposition to the communist regime.

Despite constant police persecution, the Charter 77 spokesperson and founder of VONS also managed to raise seven children. Ex-Finance Minister and TOP 09 co-founder Miroslav Kalousek tweeted that she was “A brave lady, an indubitable moral example. She never forced her faith on anybody, she lived through her faith.”