Friedmannová-Fantová, Malvína

Captain Malvína Friedmannová-Fantová


Health Patrol Commander 1. MS. solitude. field battalion in the USSR



She was born on March 1, 1917 in Cejkove in Slovakia in a Jewish family. After graduating as a burgher, she went to study at the Czechoslovak Red Cross medical courses in Prague and then worked as a nurse in Benešov near Prague. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, she decided to leave to fight the Nazis.


In the summer of 1939, she secretly crossed the protectorate border and went to Poland, where she was caught in Katowice by the war. Along with many other emigrants, she went to the USSR, where she formally married a Red Army soldier to obtain a residence permit. She joined the hospital as a nurse and, after the German attack on the USSR, enlisted in the Red Army military infirmary. In the autumn of 1941, she was evacuated to Kazakhstan, where she learned of the formation of a Czechoslovak military unit in Buzuluk. She was among the first to sign up, and after completing her military training, she became a nurse instructor. She longed to fight and promoted that women should be despite the initial resistance of Czechoslovakia. of the London government, sent to the front. This was fulfilled in January 1943, when as the commander of the medical patrol 1. MS. independent field battalion completed a painful journey to Sokolov, where she underwent her first combat baptism. Together with the submachine guns of the 1st Company, she was in the first line, where she treated the wounded under heavy fire. She took several dozen of them out of the fight with weapons, and when she found herself face to face with the enemy, she was not intimidated and turned him back on with unexpectedly accurate machine-gun fire. For exceptional bravery, she was the first Czechoslovak woman to be awarded a Soviet Order of the Red Star at the same time as Czechoslovak War Cross 1939.


In the summer of 1943 she was transferred to the medical company and in 1944, already as a sergeant, to the medical battalion 3. MS. solitude. brigade, with which she then participated in the liberation struggles from Dukla to Ostrava and Prague. She married a member of the Czechoslovak. military units in the USSR Kurt Fantu and adopted his surname.


After the war, she graduated from the ČSČK medical school and then worked at the Military Hospital in Prague-Střešovice. In the summer of 1948, she volunteered as an instructor for medical training in the Israeli army led by A. Sochorem and together with her husband then went to Israel, where she became the commander of the medical platoon of the organization HAGANA. Initially she lived in Haifa and later in Nahariya, where she worked in a hospital and where she lives today.


Her courage and heroism were portrayed in the story of the fictional heroine Anka Kadlecová (played by R. Doleželová) by director O. Vávra in his film trilogy Days of Betrayal, Sokolovo and Osvobození Prahy. For political reasons, her name had to be changed and all references to her Jewish nationality had to be completely erased. Thus Malvína Friedmanová became a Czech patriot from a working-class communist family.



Source: Military personalities of the Czechoslovak resistance 1939 - 1945, col. authors
FROM BUZULUK TO PRAGUE, L. Svoboda
BY THE SIDE OF A MAN, V. Tichá

URL : https://www.valka.cz/Friedmannova-Fantova-Malvina-t33188#120134 Version : 0
M. Friedmannová with her girls from the medical patrol and the chief physician MUDr. Fr. Engel in Buzuluk (pictured third from left)
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Friedmannova-Fantova-Malvina-t33188#120560 Version : 0
Unit in the Battle of Sokolov: 1st Company (name list)
Tribal number: 223/ž
Enrolled in the state 1.ČSSPP: Buzuluk 11.2.1942 - as the first woman to enter Czechoslovakia. foreign troops in the USSR.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Friedmannova-Fantova-Malvina-t33188#133222 Version : 0
She graduated from primary school in Slovak, but a middle school in Hungarian


In 1941, after her marriage to a Russian citizen, she was officially presented in the Red Army




Other awards she has received include:


Sokolovská commemorative medal
Dukel commemorative medal
Commemorative medal MS. army abroad with the label USSR
Soviet Commemorative Medal for the victory over Germany




Source: http://www.zeny-bojujici.cz/medailonky/95, www.valka.cz
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Friedmannova-Fantova-Malvina-t33188#314007 Version : 0
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