Action locks

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aktion Schlösser (1945–1947) was a humanitarian campaign to help Jewish children from concentration camps and German children from internment camps. The event was organized by the humanist Přemysl Pitter and his colleague Olga Fierz as well as volunteers.

history

In 1933, Přemysl Pitter founded the Milíč House in the Prague district of Žižkov, an institution for the extracurricular education of children from poor families. Children of Jewish descent and some of Pitter's employees were deported to the ghettos of Litzmannstadt , Theresienstadt and other concentration camps during the war . During the occupation, Pitter and Fierz tried to secretly help Jewish families. Together with their employees, they committed themselves to immediate help for children in the post-war period.

Immediately after the liberation, Pitter received the order from the health and social commission of the Czech National Council and began with the “Castles Action”. The castles in Štiřín, Kamenice, Olešovice, Lojovice and a guest house in Ládví (near Prague ) were turned into rest homes. This is where the children who returned from concentration camps gathered. The children were given medical care, high-quality meals and loving treatment.

Pitter condemned the post-war violence against the German population and criticized the inhumane treatment of Germans in the internment camps. He campaigned for a humanization of these camps. In the “Aktion Schlösser” he therefore also took in German children from these camps. When the Germans were expelled , Pitter and his employees ( Olga Fierz , Ferdinand Krch) arranged the connection between the children and their parents or relatives. The “Aktion Schlösser” passed through 810 children within two years, half of whom were German children. Research into lost children or their relatives was concentrated in the Milíč house office until 1950.

literature

  • Olga Fierz: Children's Fates in the Troubles of the Post-War Period. A rescue operation for German and Jewish children 1945 - 1947 in Czechoslovakia, Vitalis 2017, ISBN 978-3-89919-361-9 .
  • Pavel Kohn: Castles of Hope. The rescued children of Přemysl Pitter remember. FA Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-7766-5045-7 .
  • Premysl Pitter: Under the Wheel of History - Autobiography, revised by Sabine Dittrich , Neufeld Verlag, Schwarzenfeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-86256-083-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Olga Fierz: Children's fates in the turmoil of the post-war period. Vitalis 2017, p. 10
  2. ↑ Pavel Kohn: Castles of Hope. The rescued children of Přemysl Pitter remember, FA Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH, Munich 2016, p. 198
  3. ^ The assignment of the Czech National Council to P. Pitter from May 16, 1945, stored in the Pitter and Fierz archive
  4. ↑ Přemysl Pitter, Olga Fierzová: Dokončená dvouletka pro záchranu dětí z koncentračních a internačních táborů , Posel Milíčova domu 7, 1947, p. 3