Her Ukrainian father was executed by the Nazis
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Irena Truplová, née Parfenyuk, was born in 1943 in Josefin in Polish Volhynia. Her mother came from the community of Volhynian Czechs and her father was Ukrainian. Irena was less than a year old when her father, Adam Parfenyuk, was one of a group of relatives executed by the Nazis for aiding partisans. Her grandfather was shot by the Banderites. Her mother secretly re-emigrated to Czechoslovakia in 1947, where she struggled to make a living as a widow with no means. In 1961, Irena married Stanislav Trupl, a Czech from Soběslav whose father had, as a self-employed man, been unjustly convicted in a mock trial to five years of prison in the 1950s. In 1977, Irena Truplová became head of the Cadre (ideology) and Personnel Department in the Opavia Opava chocolate factory. She was also chairwoman of the ZO ROH (local part of the national Revolutionary Trade Union Movement) and was elected secretary of the District Trade Union Council (DTUC) in Opava in 1979, which position she retained until 1988. The position required her to join the communist party, and she also underwent expert unionist training and spent six months studying at the Trade Union University in Moscow. In 1988, Irena Truplová became the chairwoman of the DTUC in Opava and remained in the position until the DTUC was abolished after the fall of the Communist regime. She now lives in Opava and is an active member of the Czech Association of Freedom Fighters and the Czechoslovak Legionary Community in Opava.
