Karel Weirich

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Karel Weirich (born July 2, 1906 in Rome , † 1981 ibid.) Was a Czech journalist and correspondent. During the Second World War , he saved the lives of numerous Czechoslovak Jews.

Life

Weirich's parents emigrated to Italy before he was born . After graduating from high school , he began to work for the papal mission organizations. He wrote articles about Czechoslovakia for the official Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano and Messaggero . In 1935 he became the permanent correspondent of the Czechoslovak press agency ČTK in the Vatican and Italy. In 1941 he was dismissed for his anti-Nazi positions.

Weirich became part of the resistance and he secretly helped foreigners who were hiding in Italy from the fascist regime , which was cooperating with the National Socialists , with food, medicine and documents. In particular, he helped several hundred Jewish prisoners from Czechoslovakia who were integrated into the Ferramonti di Tarsia internment camp ; they were survivors of the stranded ship Pentcho, which was supposed to bring the Jews to Palestine. Weirich was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and sentenced to death . The sentence was later reduced to 18 years of hard labor. In May 1945 he was freed from prison in Bavaria by the Americans . Weirich stayed in Italy after the war.

literature

  • Alberto Trochnin: Un giusto ritrovato. Karel Weirich: la resistancea civile e il salvataggio degli ebrei in Italia. Treviso 2007. ISBN 978-88-88880-26-6 . (Italian)
  • Alberto Tronchin: Spravedlivý riskuje. Karel Weirich, český novinář a zachránce Židů v Itálii. Kostelní Vydří 2015. ISBN 978-80-7195-827-7 . (Czech)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.radio.cz/de/rubrik/tagesecho/unbekannter-held-karel-weirich-rettete-hunderte-tschechosloakische-juden (accessed on November 22, 2015)
  2. ↑ Konference připomene málo známý osud zachránce českých Židů , report of the portal České noviny.CZ / ČTK, online at: ceskenoviny.cz / ...
  3. ↑ a b Jan Fingerland: Karel Weirich, neznámý hrdina , Czech radio "Český rozhlas Plus", online at: rozhlas.cz/plus / ...
personal data
SURNAME Weirich, Karel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech journalist and correspondent
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH 1981
Place of death Rome