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Dr. Joseph Jaksy poses on a street in Bratislava with Mrs. Suran and her daughter Valeria.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 89118
Dr. Joseph Jaksy poses on a street in Bratislava with Mrs. Suran and her daughter Valeria. The Surans were among the 25 Jews rescued by Dr. Joseph Jaksy during WWII. Jaksy engineered the fictitious purchase of the Suran's home in Bratislava; he provided false papers that allowed the Suran children to escape to South America; he registered the elder Surans as his own Slovak domestics; and, after a Gestapo search of the house, he provided Mrs. Suran with false papers and drove her to safety.

Dr. Joseph Jaksy poses on a street in Bratislava with Mrs. Suran and her daughter Valeria.

The Surans were among the 25 Jews rescued by Dr. Joseph Jaksy during WWII. Jaksy engineered the fictitious purchase of the Suran's home in Bratislava; he provided false papers that allowed the Suran children to escape to South America; he registered the elder Surans as his own Slovak domestics; and, after a Gestapo search of the house, he provided Mrs. Suran with false papers and drove her to safety.

Date
Circa 1945 - 1948
Locale
Bratislava, [Slovakia] Czechoslovakia
Variant Locale
Pozsony
Pressburg
Slovakia
Photo Designation
RESCUERS & RESCUED -- Czechoslovakia
Photo Credit
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Amira Kohn-Trattner

About This Photograph

Biography
Dr. Joseph Jaksy (1900-1991) was a Slovak urologist from Bratislava who served as the personal physician to Andrej Hlinka, founder of the Slovak People's Party, and other leading members of the fascist regime that ruled Slovakia during WWII. During this period Jaksy used his privileged status to organize rescue efforts that saved at least 25 Jews from deportation. Together with a group of friends, Jaksy devised a four point plan for rescue that included finding shelter; providing money, food and medical care; forging identification papers and falsifying medical records; and helping people to get out of the country. Though suspected of involvement with the resistance, Jaksy was never arrested. After the war Jaksy remained in Czechoslovakia until 1948. Fearing persecution by the new communist regime, he went to the U.S. on a visiting medical fellowship and remained. He was honored posthumously by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Keywords and Subjects

Rights and Restrictions

Photo Source
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Provenance: Amira Kohn-Trattner
 
Record last modified: 2004-04-09 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa19330