Thanks to the Project "Forgotten Heroes" there will be particular, concrete people under the official labels of "antifascists" or "anti-Nazis". The list will contain names of approximately one hundred partakers in the historical events in alphabetical order. Their photo portraits will show their faces and audio recordings will pass on to the listener the emotions they experienced when recollecting the most dramatic events of their lives. The atmosphere of the period will be illustrated through photographs of objects typical of that period. Five selected witnesses will be videotaped and the shots will be included in the intended documentary. Apart from the audio and video recordings, the stories will be also publicized as texts, but the extent to which the data will be released depends on the partakers' consent.
Realizované rozhovory
Ilsa Dolanská, née Kreibich
*1929 in Moscow as Ilse Kreibich's illegitimate daughter (Karel Kreibich was her grandfather). Her mother was a very active member of the Communist Party and was arrested in March 1939, and imprisoned in Ravensbrück. After the War, Ilsa lived with her stepfather, Jaromír Dolanský. She attended a German primary and lower secondary school, then, in the Protectorate, a German commercial higher secondary school, and after that a Russian Gymnasium (a Comprehensive Higher Secondary School in 1948-1951). She worked as an interpreter. In 1968 she terminated her membership in the KSČ (the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia).
(Živá paměť)
Josef Jaroš
(* 1927) was born into a German-Czech family in Kozolupy. After the Munich Agreement, the family left for Plzeň (Pilsen). As a member of the KSČ, his father was involved in resistance activities and several times arrested and imprisoned (Dresden, Flossenbürg, Dachau). He died in March 1945. Josef's grandparents were excluded from resettlement and after the War, the family returned back to Kozolupy. During the War, Josef Jaroš was forcibly engaged as farming workforce and he became a professional soldier after its end.
(Živá paměť)
Katharina Grader
(* 1921) Rozhovor bude odevzdán v pol. července (Schatz)
Hedy (Hedwiga) Fromings, née Hünigen
(* 1926) Her family helped German refugees. Hedy and her mother fled to England (1939-1945), where Hedwiga attended a Czech school. Her father spent the entire War in a concentration camp. She married an Englishman and has lived in England since 1949.
(Dölling)
Jiří Kosta
(*1921) was born into a leftist Jewish family and both his parents had contacts with German emigrant intellectuals. During the War, his father was in England and the other family members experienced Terezín and other concentration camps. After the War, Jiří Kosta graduated from an economic university. In the 1950s, his parents were both imprisoned and he worked at a production plant as a worker. In the 1960s he worked in finance and emigrated to Germany in 1968, where he still lives.
(ÚSD)
Edith Kroupová, née Mayer
(*1927) was born into a German-Jewish family in Bílina. After 1939, her father was branded as politically disloyal due to his marriage to a Jew and also due to his democratic political beliefs. Edith Kroupová was expelled from school and forcibly engaged as farming workforce. In 1944, her father was sent to a labour camp in Germany and in January 1945, her mother was imprisoned in Terezín. After the War, the family was seen as a German family.
(Živá paměť)
Herbert Löwit
(*1923). Thanks to the DSAP (German Social-Democratic Labour Party) rescue operation, the Löwit family reached England as early as in 1938. Herbert studied at a higher secondary school and then he worked as an accountant. In 1941, he joined the Czechoslovak Army (France, England). After the War, he left the Army and became an English teacher in Prague before he left for England again in 1947.
(Dölling)
Viluš Prokš
(* 1924-1945) The interview was conducted with Viluše Prokš's cousin. Both families lived in Kateřinky (Opava). Viluše Prokš's grandfather (his guardian) proclaimed him German, so he was forced to join the German Army. Being branded as disloyal, he was constantly under the surveillance of his peers. He was killed on the Eastern Front in spring 1945 when he was serving in the punitive regiment.
(ÚSD)
Ernst Raim
rozhovor bude odevzdán v pol. července
(Schatz)
Otto Rubner
rozhovor bude odevzdán v pol. července
(Schatz)
Marie Schwarzová-Šišková
Brno, rozhovor bude odevzdán v pol. července
(MMUL)
Charlotte Silsby, née Löwit
(*1914) was born into a social-democratic family in Liberec (her brother is Herbert Löwit). She was a member of an antifascist cultural association (Kabaret 13). In 1938 she fled to England, where she got married and stayed.
(Dölling)
Olga Sippl
rozhovor bude odevzdán v pol. července
(Schatz + video)
Walter Sitte
(*1935). His family lived in Hrádek nad Nisou. During the War, the family was persecuted by the local NSDAP secretary. His father refused to join the SS, which resulted in his forcible labour engagement and later conscription into the Wehrmacht punitive troops. His mother declined to join a nationalistic women's association.
(ÚSD)
Alexander Stefanescu
(* 1922) was Romanian from his father's side and German from his mother's and grew up in Šumperk. As a student at a German technical university, he was to join the SS, but he refused. He was arrested in April 1945. After the War, he lived in Prague.
(Živá paměť)
Helma Studená, née Bartl
(*1923) grew up in Vejprty. Her father was a municipal councillor for DSAP and was involved in helping German refugees. As a child, she participated in an exchange scheme and studied in Prague for a year. In mid-September 1938, he was abducted to the Reich and imprisoned, first in Flossenbürg and later in Dachau, where he died. Helma Studená still lives in Vejprty. She worked all her life as a worker in textile industry.
(Živá paměť)
Otto Wagner
(* 1920) Rozhovor bude odevzdán v pol. července
(Schatz)
Ilse Wilmerdinger
(*1922) Teplice
(Wagnerová + video)