Pavla Plachá is the Head of the Department for Research on the Period of Non-Freedom (1938–1945) at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. Her research focuses on the persecution of the population in the Czech lands under National Socialism, Czech and Czechoslovak women in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Nazi judicial executions, death marches, child abductions, and the structure of Nazi camps.
Since 2017, she has led a collaborative project documenting Czechoslovak citizens executed in Dresden during the Nazi era. She earned her Ph.D. in Czech and Czechoslovak history at the University of Hradec Králové and holds a Master’s degree in history and German studies from Charles University in Prague.
Her career includes work with memorial institutions such as Flossenbürg and Ravensbrück, and she previously worked for the Czech-German Future Fund. She has received academic recognition and led numerous grant-funded research projects.
Plachá is the author of several monographs, including Zerrissene Leben and Zpřetrhané životy, and has published extensively on topics related to political persecution, forced labour, and women's experiences in concentration camps.