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Oral history interview with Premysl Josef Dobias

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1285.7 | RG Number: RG-50.149.0007

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    Oral history interview with Premysl Josef Dobias

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Premysl Josef Dobias describes living in Sudentenland, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) from 1919 to 1938; his family and their religious and political backgrounds; his education; the relations between Germans and Czechs; living standards and freedom; relations with Communists; his personal politics; the attitude of Czechoslovakian fascists; the relations with Jews; Francophile attitudes; relations with neighboring countries; visiting Berlin, Germany before the Munich crisis and the Czechoslovakian reaction to the Munich crisis in 1938; his involvement with the Czechoslovakian Resistance from 1939 to 1941; contact with senior British civil servant Charles Fish, who was sympathetic to Czechoslovakia; the beginnings of the resistance to Germans; the sight of Germans moving into the country in March 1939; German restrictions against Jews; the degree of collaboration with Germans; the start of the war and the organization of a resistance group; narrowly escaping from the Gestapo and being arrested in January 1941; being interrogated in Prague, Czech Republic; being transferred to Theresienstadt; being an inmate of Mauthausen from May 1941 to May 1945; the train journey from Linz to the camp; the characters of his fellow prisoners; beatings by the SS; arriving in the camp; being assigned to work in the granite quarry; the hospitalizations for foot infections; receiving aid from a Polish officer; witnessing the murder of inmates; how he became a Blockschreiber (in barrack number 3) and his job counting prisoners during the appels and keeping tally of the dead; the injection of gasoline into inmates’ hearts; the danger of knowing too much; aid given to him by fellow Czechs after witnessing the injection of inmates; being transferred to the main camp and his role as interpreter; the arrival of women prisoners in the spring of 1945; aid given to an English female inmate; the contact with British agents; the murder of Jewish inmates by throwing them down into the quarry in 1942; meaning of term “Muselmann”; the mutual aid amongst inmates; the Jehovah's Witnesses in the camp; the resistance organized by inmates; the story of a Czech inmate who was able to crack safes; an attempted mass escape by Soviet POWs; the degree of contact with surrounding population; the liberation of Mauthausen by US troops in May 1945; revenge taken on Kapos and the US soldiers’ stopping lynchings; the forcible repatriation of Russian prisoners; returning to Czechoslovakia and resuming his education; giving evidence at post war investigations of German war crimes; the nature of the medical experimentation on inmates at Mauthausen; the effects of being imprisoned; and the German government’s compensation for former inmates.
    Interviewee
    Premysl J. Dobias
    Date
    interview:  1989 February 21

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    4 sound cassettes (90 min.).

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. Permission to copy and/or use recordings in any production must be granted by the Imperial War Museums.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Topical Term
    Communists--Czech Republic--Sudetenland. Concentration camp guards. Concentration camp inmates as guards. Concentration camp inmates--Medical care. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Escapes. Fascists--Czech Republic--Sudetenland. Foot--Infections. Holocaust survivors--Great Britain. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Czechoslovakia--Personal narratives. Human experimentation in medicine. Jehovah's Witnesses. Jews--Czech Republic--Sudetenland. Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Czechoslovakia. Kapos. Lethal injection (Execution) Murder--Austria. Prisoners--Abuse of--Austria. Prisons--Czech Republic--Prague. Quarries and quarrying. Roll calls. Shooting (Execution) War crime trials. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Austria. World War, 1939-1945--Forced repatriation. World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance--Austria. World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance--Czechoslovakia. World War, 1939-1945--Medical care--Austria. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Czechoslovakia. Men--Personal narratives.
    Personal Name
    Dobias, Premysl Josef.

    Administrative Notes

    Holder of Originals
    Imperial War Museum
    Provenance
    The interview was conducted by the Imperial War Museum as part of their retrospective oral history interview program. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired a copy of the interview with Premysl Josef Dobias from the Imperial War Museum in February 1995.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:17:18
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn510815

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