Karel Kněz (43)

Gendarmerie officer, born 16 January 1899, station commander of Vrbatův Kostelec, Chrudim district in Bohemia. During the occupation he was involved in the resistance, founded the resistance group Čenda and participated in the protection and cover of the telegraph operator of the Silver A group, Lance Corporal Jiří Potůček in Ležáky and its surroundings. He shot himself during a patrol on 22 June 1942 at around 3 a.m. with a service pistol on a dirt road between the villages of Louka and Habroveč to prevent his arrest. He was buried in Vrbatova Kostelc. He received the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 in memoriam. Since 2012, there has been a regularly organized conscription race for children called the Karel Knez Memorial. In 2019 he was awarded the medal \"For Heroism\" in memoriam by the President of the Republic.