Olga Fierz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olga Fierz (born July 26, 1900 in Baden, Aargau ; † June 17, 1990 in Affoltern am Albis ) was a Swiss educator and translator who, together with Přemysl Pitter, saved German and Jewish children in Prague after the Second World War .

Life

Olga Fierz came from a wealthy Calvinist family of manufacturers. When the company went bankrupt, it learned about destitution. The family moved to Brussels in 1910 , where Fierz obtained a teacher’s diploma, which was later not recognized in Switzerland. Her great role model was the educational reformer Heinrich Pestalozzi . In Geneva she studied at the Institut Rousseau , after which she took a job in an English boarding school for girls. As a staunch pacifist, she joined the International Union of Reconciliation , where she met Přemysl Pitter and his educational workers in Prague's working-class districts in Oberammergau in 1926 . In 1928 she moved to Prague and became Pitter's closest colleague. The two remained lifelong friends, Pitter had chosen celibacy out of his deep faith. Olga learned Czech , gave German lessons and supported Pitter in his work. In 1933 they built the Milíč House together , a children's home for children from socially disadvantaged families in the Prague district of Žižkov . In the house newspaper she published articles on the distribution of work and internal organization in the Milíč house , on work and fun of children , A few words on testimonials , education in the Milíč house , education through performing games .

In 1938, after the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Germany, Olga was asked by the Swiss embassy to leave Czechoslovakia immediately. But she stayed in Prague to help Pitter with her Swiss passport. They now tried to help the persecuted Jewish children with food that was not allowed into the Milíč house .

Together with their employees, they committed themselves to immediate help for children in the post-war period. Immediately after the liberation, P. Pitter was commissioned by the health and social commission of the Czech National Council and began the Schlösser campaign (1945–1947). They converted four vacant castles (Štiřín, Kamenice, Olešovice, Lojovice) south of Prague into recreation homes for children. The released Jewish children from Theresienstadt were taken in there. There were also Jewish youths from other concentration camps . Pitter and Fierz tried to find the relatives of the children and adolescents, many were given the opportunity to travel to Palestine or they were given foster families.

In 1945 Pitter and Fierz were also allowed to fetch the sick and abandoned children from German internment camps in the greater Prague area and also to accommodate them in the castles, so that German and Jewish children could now recover together. A total of 400 German children were cared for there.

In 1947 around 800 children were housed and the Schlösser campaign was ended.

After Fierz traveled to Switzerland for her sister's funeral, she was denied re-entry into Czechoslovakia. In 1951 she organized Přemysl Pitter's escape to Germany.

In Nuremberg , Olga Fierz and Přemysl Pitter looked after refugees from the communist east in the Valka refugee camp from 1952 to 1962 .

Olga Fierz spent her old age with Přemysl Pitter in Switzerland and took part in the publication of the exile magazine Hovory s pisateli (Conversations with writers).

For Olga Fierz was in Jerusalem in the Avenue of the Righteous a tree planted.

The asteroid (48782) Fierz has been named after her since 2009.

Works

  • Nad vřavou nenávisti. Vzpomínky a svědectví Přemysla Pittra a Olgy Fierzové , Prague 1996.
  • Hovory. Sborník Nadace Přemysla Pittra a Olgy Fierzové , Prague 1996.
  • Children's fates in the turmoil of the post-war period. A rescue operation for German and Jewish children 1945–1947 in Czechoslovakia , Vitalis, Furth im Wald 2000; 2nd, revised edition 2017.

literature

  • Sabine Dittrich : Reconciliation in the castles in Prague. Olga Fierz saved Jewish and German children during World War II . In: “Women's History. Women in History ”. 4/2017, pp. 16-19.
  • Pavel Kohn: Castles of Hope. The rescued children of Premysl Pitter remember . Translated from the Czech and with an afterword by Ota Filip. Herbig, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-7766-5045-7 .
  • Přemysl 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. ↑ Martina Schneibergová: The ›Milíč House‹ was opened in Prague 70 years ago . In: Radio Praha . November 1, 2003, accessed October 2, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Olga Fierz . In: Vitalis Verlag website, accessed October 1, 2017.
  3. ↑ Sabine Dittrich: Reconciliation at the castles in Prague ... , p. 19.
personal data
SURNAME Fierz, Olga
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss educator and translator
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Baden, Aargau
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1990
Place of death Affoltern am Albis