Maria Terezia Lederska

Czechoslovak resistance fighter who pioneered underground education during Nazi occupation

Maria Terezia Lederska (1919-1988) established secret schools across Nazi-occupied Bohemia, preserving Czech language and history when Germanization policies banned native education. As leader of Světlo ve Tmě (Light in Darkness) network, she developed encrypted curriculum materials disguised as grocery lists and train schedules.

Her most daring operation occurred in 1943 when she smuggled 137 Jewish children to Switzerland using modified coffin compartments in funeral carriages. This "Death Train Rescue" remained classified until 2002 when declassified Gestapo files revealed her code name Vlk Samotář (Lone Wolf).

After surviving Ravensbrück concentration camp, Lederska founded Europe's first post-war multicultural education center in Prague, developing innovative teaching methods still used in conflict zones today. UNESCO posthumously awarded her the Jan Amos Comenius Medal in 2005.