Gustav Schorsch

Gustav Schorsch (born January 29, 1918 in Horschitz , Austria-Hungary ; died January 1945 in the Fürstengrube concentration camp , German Reich ) was a Czech actor, translator and reciter.

Gustav Schorsch, 1942

Life

The youngest of three children of a textile merchant stood in front of the camera at the age of fourteen with a student role in a movie (“ Before the Matura ”, 1932). At the age of 17 Gustav Schorsch led a recitation group at his Prague secondary school, which won the prize of the “Society of Friends of Ancient Culture” in a competition ahead of other schools in the Czechoslovak capital. Schorsch then received his artistic training at the Czech National Theater in Prague and studied philosophy at the Charles University there. He studied poetry evenings and organized readings. Schorsch also played stage roles in his first year at the Conservatory. He adapted Thomas Mann's “ Tonio Kröger ” for radio and in 1939 took on smaller regular roles at the Prague National Theater, where he prepared a reading of Goethe's “ Faust ” under the direction of director Karel Dostal . Schorsch was also involved in founding the avant-garde stage D 99, also located in Prague. The so-called smashing of the rest of the Czech Republic by the German Wehrmacht destroyed hopes of continuing a stage career. From then on Schorsch was denied lectures and theater appearances, and he could only take part in readings in private.

In June 1941, German agencies committed him to Lípa as a forced laborer. On December 22nd, 1942, the Jewish artist was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto , where he continued to work artistically: as an actor (he prepared several series of recitations) and as a director (for example in 1943 for the philosophical-allegorical drama “ Die Marionetten ” and in the year then in Nikolai Gogol's The Marriage ). " Under Schorsch, who paradoxically was only able to realize his ideas of the theater here in the ghetto, and his consistent and demanding directing, the interpreters (all amateurs) achieved remarkable acting performances ." Other projects were suddenly destroyed by another forced relocation: On October 16 In 1944 German agencies deported Gustav Schorsch to the Auschwitz concentration camp . When this was evacuated in January 1945 in view of the approaching Red Army, Schorsch had to go on a death march to the Fürstengrube sub-camp, a mining facility. He was executed there a little later. IMDb names February 27, 1945 as the date of death, but this is not confirmed by any other source. Schorsch's older siblings Karel (born 1911) and Julie (born 1913) survived the Holocaust , while his father at the age of 67 and his mother Johanna at the age of 60 were both murdered in Treblinka in October 1942.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ There are various other days in January 1918, but January 29, 1918 is confirmed by official documents from the 1940s.
2. ↑ Schorsch on ghetto-theresienstadt.info

Web links

• Gustav Schorsch on holocaust.cz
• Gustav Schorsch on ghetto-theresienstadt.info
• Gustav Schorsch in the Internet Movie Database (English)

literature

• Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 412.