Jan Opletal

Jan Opletal (January 1, 1915 – November 11, 1939) was a student of the Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, who was shot at a Czechoslovak Independence Day on 28 October 1939. He was severely injured at this anti-Nazi demonstration against the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and died two weeks later.

Jan Opletal is seen as a symbolic figure of the Czech resistance against national socialism.

Opletal stems from modest circumstances. He was born in Lhota nad Moravou , a small village near Náklo in the north Moravia on New Year's Day of 1915. He was the eighth child in the family of Anna and Štěpán Opletal. His parents officially declared his date of birth per 31 December 1914 to be able to send him to school one year earlier. Opletal visited the elementary school in Náklo and then one year the community school in Štěpánov u Olomouce. Actually, he was supposed to undergo a training at the pump factory of the Brothers Sigmund in Lutín, but in 1926 he was admitted to the high school of Litovel, on the recommendation of his teachers who recognized his intelligence and discipline. He joined the gymnastics movement Sokol and also used their educational offerings. He completed his Abitur in 1934 with distinction. After that, he wanted to become a pilot and applied in the flying school of Prostějov. He was not admitted, due to lack of vision. He then went to become an officer at the Hranice na Moravě school for reserve officers and concluded his service in the Czechoslovak Army in a cavalry regiment.

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