Nazi armband acquired by Hans Praschkauer

Heinz Praschkauer (later Hans, 1919-2004) was born in Oels, Germany (now Oleśnica, Poland), to Georg (later George, 1878-1956) and Babetha (later Betty, nee Reich, 1885-1971). He had an older brother, Max (1910-1993), and the family was among the approximately 200 Jews living in the town. Georg worked as a merchant, and the family lived a middle-class lifestyle. Heinz lost his hearing at an early age, so when his formal education began in 1926, he had a private tutor who was fluent in sign language. While Heinz was still young, his family moved to Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). In 1928, he began attending the School for the Hard of Hearing where he learned oral speech.

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Anti-Jewish decrees were passed that restricted every aspect of Jewish life, but Heinz continued attending his small public school. Heinz also belonged to a Jews-only sports club. After completing school in 1935, Heinz began taking classes at a professional school, and started a tailoring apprenticeship. In April 1938, Heinz began taking lessons in English. On November 9 and 10, Nazi officials instigated violent pogroms against Jews and their property, known as Kristallnacht. During the pogroms, 30,000 Jewish men were incarcerated and held in German concentration camps until they promised to leave Germany. On November 11, Max was arrested and imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp. After he was released on January 2, 1939, the entire family began making plans to leave Germany. Georg and Babetha needed time to dispense with their property, so Heinz and Max left on their own. The brothers traveled through German-occupied Czechoslovakia and Austria to Trieste, Italy. They set sail from Trieste on the Italian Liner, Conte Verde, for Shanghai, China, on May 10. Heinz and Max had first-class accommodations, but were not allowed to disembark at any of the British-controlled ports on the journey. They arrived in Shanghai on June 4.

Heinz and Max settled in the area of Hongkew, which was part of a large section of Shanghai the Japanese occupied during the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War. It was an impoverished district, with poor sanitary conditions and limited indoor plumbing as well as heat. The climate was markedly different from what Heinz and Max knew in Germany; hot, rainy summers; cold, humid winters, and a variety of tropical diseases with little medicine available. Heinz obtained a job working for a tailor, then left that post to work with a different tailor and set up his own shop, after his parents arrived in August 1940. His clientele was almost exclusively European, and he was able to make a decent living. While in Shanghai, Heinz met many other deaf people from a variety of countries, with whom he was able to communicate relatively easy.

In 1943, under Nazi influence, the Japanese authorities ordered the entire refugee community (around 14,000 people, the majority of which were Jewish) into the Hongkew district. The area became known as the Shanghai ghetto, and a pass was required to exit. Many people lost their ability to work in other districts, and became dependent on outside aid. However, Heinz was able to continue working while also taking classes, and eventually joined the Guild of Craftsmen in Shanghai.

In the late 1940s, the rise of communism in China led Heinz’s family to emigrate. Max left first, with his wife and two young daughters. They arrived in San Francisco, California, in June 1948, and eventually settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After numerous oral, written, and physical examinations, Heinz and his parents also sailed for San Francisco on September 24, 1949, arriving on October 13. They joined Max in Pittsburgh, where Georg and Babetha Americanized their names to George and Betty. Heinz continued to work as a tailor and married Marian Wells (1918-2005), a native of Pennsylvania.