She was brought up in a theatrical environment - both of her parents, Marie Svobodová (1871–1960) and Oldřich Svoboda (died 1939), and her sister, Růžena Nováková (1899–1984), were actors.

[3] While working with the theatre company of Otto Alfredi she met and befriended the operetta actor Ludvík Hrdlička, who performed under the stage name "Letenský".

They had previously moved to Prague in 1936 where after a series of short-term engagements Letenská found employment with the Vinohrady Theatre (1939–42).

On 27 May 1942, in an action known as Operation Anthropoid, two Czechoslovak parachutists, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, ambushed and fatally wounded Reinhard Heydrich, Deputy Reich-Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, while he was being driven through the Prague suburb of Libeň.

[7] After Karel Čurda's betrayal of his Resistance colleagues and friends, Lyčka and his wife Františka Lyčková were forced to split up and find separate places to hide.

[4] In Prague, Čaloun continued working to help people threatened by the Nazi régime leave the country.

[4] Both Čaloun and Dr. Lyčka were members of the illegal organisation called Jindra and were closely connected with the group helping Heydrich's assassins.

[8][9] However, according to the subsequent account given by the Czech actor Svatopluk Beneš, Letenská told him a different version of the story.

She had gone to a wine bar with her second husband where they met a man who introduced himself as a friend of Čaloun's brother and asked if they could give him a bed for one night.

[11] Surprisingly, only her husband was arrested and Letenská was allowed to remain at large, purportedly because she was one of the stars of the still unfinished movie Přijdu hned.

According to Otakar Vávra, the film's director, "throughout this time Anna Letenská would sit with her head held between her hands although she appeared as cheerful as could be in front of the camera.

Her colleague, the actor Antonín Strnad, said that Letenská was arrested and then shortly after that she was released very briefly, only so that she could terminate her contract of employment at the Vinohrady Theatre.

[14] The final version tells how Letenská was arrested by the German interrogator Heinz Jantur on 3 September 1942.

The consulting room, located in a building referred to as "the bunker", was in fact an execution chamber (in German: Genickschuss) masquerading as a medical facility.

[15] The novel Kat nepočká (The Hangman Won't Wait, 1958) by Norbert Frýd was inspired by Anna Letenská's life story.