Close-up portrait of an Jewish woman shortly before her deportation to Theresienstadt.
Overview
- Caption
- Close-up portrait of an Jewish woman shortly before her deportation to Theresienstadt.
Pictured is Rosa Fuchs. - Date
-
1940 - 1942
- Locale
- Prague, [Bohemia] Czechoslovakia
- Variant Locale
- Praha
Czech Republic - Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Edgar and Hana Krasa
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Edgar and Hana Krasa
Keywords & Subjects
- Keyword
- CLOSE-UPS JEWS (CZECH) WOMEN
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Hana Fuchs (now Krasa) is the daughter of Oskar and Rosa Fuchs. She was born September 24, 1923 in Prague, where her father worked as a chemist and CEO of a major food corporation, ODKOLEIK. Hana had one brother, Jiri (b. April 4, 1921). The children were raised in an assimilated Jewish home. Hana attended a public grammar school and then a private gymnasium until the enactment of anti-Jewish legislation forced her to leave. She then was taught by private tutors. Hana spoke a fluent German since her parents believed that all educated people should speak at least two languages. All the members of the Fuchs family were deported to Theresienstadt during World War II. Hana's grandmother arrived in Theresienstadt in June 1942 but died six weeks later of dysentery on August 26, 1942. Hana was deported in July 1942 and was given work splitting mica. As this was very difficult work for her, she was later detailed to work in the German vegetable gardens outside the garrison walls. Although the workers were watched very carefully, Hana would often eat the ripened vegetables in the gardens. When her brother Jiri came to Theresienstadt, he was assigned work in the bakery, which also allowed him to get extra food for himself and the family. Hana's parents, Oskar and Rosa, arrived in Theresienstadt in November 1942. Since her father was friendly with Otto Zucker, the former deputy head of the Aeltestenrat (Jewish council), he was appointed head of the economic police in the ghetto. His role was to oversee the distribution of food. His connections, however, did not ultimately protect him and his family. On October 28, 1944 Rosa was sent on the last transport to Auschwitz, where she perished. Oskar was taken off the same train and brought, along with nineteen other men, to the Small Fortress, a prison outside the ghetto walls. There he was tasked with emptying the urns of ashes of cremated prisoners, and when the task was completed, he was shot. On the day of Jiri's deportation from Theresienstadt, he married his fiancé, Hana Elsner, in an attempt to remain with her. She, however, was not deported and remained in Theresienstadt until the liberation. Jiri survived Auschwitz and was reunited with his wife in Prague after the war. Hana also remained in the camp until the end of the war. After the liberation, Hana went back to Prague, where she met and later married Edgar Krasa, a fellow survivor from Prague. In 1950 they left Czechoslovakia illegally and immigrated to Israel.
- Record last modified:
- 2006-10-30 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1159399
