Terezín Ghetto

Short biography of interviewees:

Felix Kolmer was born in Prague in 1922. He was deported to Terezín ghetto on the very first transport (Ak I). From Terezín he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and then to Friedland. After the war he became one of the top world experts in acoustics. In 1949, he began working for the Sound, Picture and Reproduction Technology Research Institute in Prague. He worked there until his retirement, taking also the director general´s position. On top of his scientific work, he also lectured at the Faculty of Electricity of the Czech Technical University and also at the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Fine Arts. He was also active on the board of the Foundation for Holocaust Victims and in the International Auschwitz Committee. The interview was filmed in Prague on 15th January 1996.

Viktor Laš was born in Černovice near Kamenice nad Lipou in 1923. He was deported to Terezín ghetto on one of the first transport trains (Ak II) towards the end of the year 1941. Apart from working with a detached commando in the coal mines in the Kladno region, he was also included in the group of forced labourers from Terezín ghetto who buried the civilians murdered in the Lidice village. From Terezín ghetto he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and then to further concentration camps. The interview was filmed in Prague on 22nd December 1995.

Jiří Bureš was born in Prague in 1941 as Jiří Busch. He changed his name after WWII, so that it would not sound Jewish. In February 1942 he was deported to Terezín ghetto together with his wife. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Small Fortress for maintaining illegal contacts with friends outside the ghetto, he was held in the infamous Jewish cell there. Eventually he was deported to further prisons in Dresden, Wroclaw, Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Gusen. After the war studied economics and escaped to West Germany after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. The interview was recorded in Prague on 17th September 1996.


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