Jindřich Karpíšek was born in Jičín on May 31, 1905. He attended primary and junior secondary school in the town, after which he graduated from the teacher training institute. In 1925, he began his military service in Turnov and graduated from the school for reserve officers in Josefov. He subsequently had teaching jobs in a number of different districts. He returned to Jičín in 1931 and taught in its Nové Město quarter. Following the acquisition of further qualifications, he was transferred as a certified teacher to Kopidlno in 1932. He was actively involved in the activities of the Union of Scouts – Scouts and Guides of the Czechoslovak Republic. During the mobilization on September 23, 1938, he enlisted in the 1st Cycling Battalion in Slaný and then ‒ as the commander of a transport of ‟reservistsˮ ‒ he left to join his battalion stationed in the area of Kardašova Řečice – Stráž nad Nežárkou. He returned to Kopidlno after demobilization.
As early as October 1939, according to Jindřich Karpíšek’s memoirs penned in the 1970s and kept in the Terezín Memorial, a resistance unit under his command was allegedly established in the Kopidlno region. The group was linked to the organization known as the Underground Movement of the Czech Home Resistance in Prague. In the first stage, it worked to strengthen national resistance against the occupiers, refute Reich propaganda, report on the real situation abroad, etc. In the second phase, the group calling itself ‟The Bugle of Freedomˮ switched to active resistance, and changed its name to ‟Strikeˮ. To avoid the arrest of all its members in case of disclosure, the group employed a system of so-called threes, whereby a maximum of three other resistance fighters were connected to one person.
On June 26, 1944, Jindřich Karpíšek was arrested by the Gestapo after being denounced for inciting the formation of a revolutionary national committee. He was initially interrogated and held in Valdice, before being transferred to the Police Prison in the Small Fortress in Terezín on August 1, 1944. During his imprisonment, he passed through a number of cells and was also twice taken to the Pankrác Prison for questioning. He went through eight labor commandos, including the ‟Gartenkommandoˮ, the ‟Albisˮ commando operating in the former Litoměřice brewery, the ‟Reichsbahnˮ commando repairing the railway, and the most backbreaking ‟Richardˮ commando deployed to work in a former limestone mine near Litoměřice. Prisoners from this commando carried out a range of tasks, including surface landscaping, road construction for the planned underground factory, and the dangerous excavation of corridors and preparation of factory halls. This is where his self-made knife, crafted from aluminum wire, comes from. Jindřich Karpíšek filled his free time by secretly writing poems, which helped him forget the horrors and hardships around him. Like other prisoners, he found solace in poetry, even if it was just for a while. Furthermore, he had his own portrait drawn in the Small Fortress by the painter Stanislav Geisler (1908–1984) in exchange for a piece of bread. He managed to send the verses and his portrait to his family, concealed in the sole of broken slippers. After the war, he donated selected works together with some other objects to the collections of the Terezín Memorial.
Jindřich Karpíšek spent the last days of his imprisonment in the Small Fortress in cell No. 41 in the Fourth Courtyard, where the conditions were truly appalling, resulting in a rapid spread of the spotted fever epidemic. Following a medical examination and delousing, he was transferred to the Terezín Ghetto on May 7, 1945. By May 8, he was back in Kopidlno, taking command of the local military forces and leading the fight against the retreating Nazis in the town and its surroundings. However, the consequences of his wartime incarceration caught up with him very soon. On May 18, 1945, he fell ill with typhus. Once he was back to full health, he resumed his career in education. He later held different positions, including district education inspector in Prague (1945–1950), district physical education inspector in Jičín (1950–1953), and regional physical education inspector. He was also on the National Committee in Hradec Králové (1953–1955) and led its education department (1955–1957). At the end of his professional career, he taught at the Elementary Nine-Year School in Kopidlno, having retired in 1965.
Michael Michner
