Didn’t someone say that heroes come in many forms? Right here at the Botanical Garden Na Slupi stands a memorial plaque. It honors Vladimír J. Krajina. He was a botanist, politician, and national hero.
Vladimír J. Krajina was born in 1905 and died in 1993. The plaque was unveiled on October 8, 2002. It sits on the former Botanical Institute building at Benátská 433/2. Nina Jindřichová created the polyester resin plaque. It is patinated to look like bronze. Václav Větvička and Jan Jeník conceived the idea. Jeník wrote the inscription.
The plaque reads “PROF. V. J. KRAJINA / 1905-1993 / BOTANIST, POLITICIAN / NATIONAL HERO”. The unveiling ceremony saw important figures. Margaret Huber was the Canadian Ambassador. Also present was the Czech Republic’s Minister of the Environment. Representatives from the Czech Botanical Society attended. Krajina’s daughter Milena Jandová was also there.
In 1990, Václav Havel awarded Krajina the Order of the White Lion. Krajina himself attended a gathering here in 1990. He headed the geobotanical department until 1948. He was a recognized authority in geobotany and plant systematics. More importantly he was an anti-communist resistance fighter. Today the large botanical lecture room bears Krajina’s name.
Krajina earned his doctorate in natural sciences in 1927. President T. G. Masaryk gave him an honorary gift. He studied in Poland and at Yale University. He also studied at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. In 1934 he wrote about plant communities in the Mlynica Valley. It was in the Slovakian High Tatra Mountains. After World War II he became a professor of botanical sciences. He expanded plant collections from Hawaii and the Far East. He emigrated after February 1948. From 1949 he worked at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He became a professor in 1958. In 1981 he became a Member of the Order of Canada. In 1985 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London.
Krajina’s social involvement began in 1939. He significantly participated in anti-Nazi resistance. He sent messages to Great Britain using Sparta wireless. His office was on the first floor of the building at 2 Benátská Street. He hid in Prague and the countryside. The Gestapo arrested him in 1943. In 1945 he escaped execution in Terezín prison. After the war he became a professor. He was elected to the National Assembly. He also became general secretary of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party. In exile, he joined exile associations. He was part of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia in 1949. He chaired the Czechoslovak National Association in Canada in 1951. He was also part of the Czechoslovak Society for Sciences and Arts in Washington in 1958.
Vladimír J. Krajina died in Vancouver. His ashes are at Prague Vyšehrad Cemetery. They are in the symbolic grave of M. Horáková. It is a memorial for victims of totalitarian regimes.
So, remember Vladimír J. Krajina. He was a hero in science and in the fight for freedom. His legacy lives on in this botanical garden. It also lives on in the ecological reserves he helped create.