Milena Jesenská

Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator (1896-1944)

Source-basedRising

Lived 1896–1944, aged 48

WritersWriter / Author

Fame28.7
Momentum8.3
Writers rank#128
Wikipedia7.4K

Wikipedia
41 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1896–1944
Aged 48

Summary

Updated 2026-05-29

Czech journalist who translated Kafka's work and exchanged letters with him that became as famous as her own writing. She joined the resistance after the Nazi invasion, helping Jews escape, until her arrest and death at Ravensbrück in 1944.

Biography

About

Milena Jesenská was a Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator. She is noted for her correspondence with the author Franz Kafka and was one of the first to translate his work from the German language. After the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, she joined a resistance movement to help Jews and other refugees. She died in Ravensbrück, a Nazi prison camp.

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