Jan Opočenský's career followed two main paths - archive-keeping and historical studies on the one hand and diplomacy on the other. As if symbolically, both sides of his activities came together during the Second World War.
Jan Opočenský was born in Most on 26th May 1885 into the family of a building contractor. He studied at a grammar school in Prague where Jaroslav Hašek was a fellow-pupil. He was prepared well for his career as an archivist by his studies at the Charles University Philosophy Faculty in Prague and at the Vienna Institut fűr ősterreichische Geschichtsforschung. In 1910, he was recruited into the archives at the Czech Vice-Regency, from which he moved in 1918 to other prominent posts at the Interior Ministry Archives and two years after that to the Foreign Ministry Archives.
As a historian, Jan Opočenský first focused on the Czech early modern period. Because of his work at the ministries of the independent Czechoslovak state, he was drawn more and more towards current issues and it was at this time that he published his more extensive works.
Opočenský's career as a diplomat started in 1936. As a devoted supporter of President Edvard Beneš's foreign policy, he was sent to Paris where he worked as the Czechoslovak General Consul until October 1938. After the Munich diktat was accepted, he was recalled because of his allegiance to Beneš. Opočenský had already caught up with the former president in London on 22nd October 1938. He returned to Bohemia for another few months (also as Beneš's courier) but then in summer 1939 he fled into exile to France from which he managed to sail to England at the last moment in June 1940. His wife remained behind in France, however, where she was interned, and she survived the war in a concentration camp.
In England, Opočenský joined the Czechoslovak resistance - as Beneš's archivist (the official job title was "Head of Foreign Ministry 1st Information Division") which also involved editorial work. A considerable part of Opočenský's wartime work is housed at the ASCR Archives including his unpublished writing The President's Stay in the United States documenting Edvard Beneš's activities in the USA (for resistance needs) in the first half of 1939. Throughout his time in exile, Jan Opočenský was assiduous in keeping a diary, hitherto unpublished, which is one of the main sources of knowledge of the second Czechoslovak resistance.
After returning from London, Opočenský worked as Czechoslovak delegate at UNESCO from 1946 to 1948. After the Communists seized power in February 1948 he again left his country, this time permanently. He again took refuge in Paris where he died 4th January 1961. He incorporated his deliberations on modern Czech history in an extensive and as yet unpublished manuscript which is also housed in the ASCR Archives, as are most of his other personal papers.
Written by Marek Durcansky
American-Czech relations
Correspondence with institutes - Centre Europeen de la Dotation Carnegie, Paris (1), 1937, Dotation Carnegie pour la Paix Internationale (1), 1937. Sign. II b 5, b. 4.
Preparation of anthology on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Edvard Beneš, 1942: correspondence - incl. J. L. Hromádka (at that time professor of the Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, Sign. IV, b. 12.20
Study called "The President’s Stay in the United States” (E. Beneš), 1942(?). Sign. IV.
Speeches by Vladimír F. Hurban, Czechoslovak Ambassador in Washington, 1939-1942. Sign. IV, b. 13. Documents on the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Committee by the anti-Hitler coalition (several items), 1939-1940. 20 Sign. IV, b. 13, 14.
Information (copies of reports) for Hubert Ripka, Minister in the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, 1942 - several dozen of the reports relate to the USA, esp. European emigration of democrats to the USA (Austrian, German, French, Czechoslovak), US relations with USSR and other countries, antisemitism in the USA, American industry and the like. Sign. IV, b. 14, 15.
UNESCO, printed materials incl. those from a conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 24-26, 1947. Sign. IV, b. 16.