Czechoslovakia Key Places - '45 Aid Society

Members of the Boys were born in Czechoslovakia.

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

Members of the Boys were held in Nazi labour and concentration camps and used as slave labourers. They had also survived World War II in hiding or as lone children.

Czechoslovakia Key Facts

The lands that made up the interwar state of Czechoslovakia are now Czechia, Slovakia and Zakarpattia Oblast in Ukraine.

Capital: Prague

Population 1938: Approximately 14,800,000

Jewish Population in 1938: Approximately 357,000,

Present-day Population of Czechia: Approximately 10,530,000

Present-day Jewish Population of Czechia: Estimated 3,500

Present-day Population of Slovakia: 5,450,000

Present-day Jewish Population of Slovakia: Approximately 2,600 to 3,500

Present-day Population of Zakarpattia Oblast: Approximately 1,250,000

Present-day Jewish Population of Zakarpattia Oblast: Under 1,000

Map of Modern-day Czechia & Slovakia. — ^{Modern-day Czechia & Slovakia.}

In the interwar period Prague was the capital of Czechoslovakia. It now the capital of Czechia. Bratislava is the capital of modern-day Slovakia. The most important Jewish city in interwar Transcarpathia was Munkács, now Mukachevo in Ukraine.

Prague, Czechoslovakia

Photograph of the Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague.

Bratislava, Czechoslovakia

Pre-World War II postcard of Bratislava Castle.

Mukačevo, Czechoslovakia

Partition of Czechoslovakia

The partition of Czechoslovakia was orchestrated in steps by Nazi Germany through military and diplomatic coercion, ultimately destroying the democratic First Czechoslovak Republic.

The Munich Agreement (September 1938): Representatives from Germany, Britain, France, and Italy permitted Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a heavily German-populated border region of Czechoslovakia.
The First Vienna Award (November 1938): Under pressure from Germany and Italy, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede significant southern territories of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus to Hungary. Concurrently, Poland annexed the disputed Zaolzie/Těšín region.
Complete Dismantlement (March 1939): Hitler broke the Munich Agreement by occupying the remainder of the Czech lands, establishing the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Slovakia was separated and became a nominally independent, pro-Nazi client state.

Ghettos & Camps

Photograph of Theresienstadt — ^{Theresienstadt (Terezín)}

The principal ghetto in nazi occupied Bohemia and Moravia was the Theresienstadt Ghetto, which played a major part in the story of the Boys.

After 1944, the Jews in the areas of Czechoslovakia occupied by Hungary were rounded up into ghettos. Most of them were then taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. There the future members of the Boys among them were selected for slave labour. The ghetto in Munkàcs (modern-day Mukachevo, Ukraine) was one of the largest in the Carpathian region.

The main concentration/transit camp in Slovakia was in Sered.

Theresienstadt Ghetto

Munkács Ghetto

Sered

The Boys born in pre-war Czechoslovakia

Abisch, Jindrich
Abraham, Alzbeta
Abraham, Martin
Abraham, Salomon
Abrahamovic, Samuel
Abramovitch (née Stern), Elsa
Adler, Arthur
Adler, Wolfgang
Ajzykowicz, Ignac
Alter, Herman
Basch, Ignac
Basch, Freida
Baumelgruen, Isaac
Beale, Mendel*
Beckman, Ida
Bergmann, Hersch
Berkovic, Frantisek
Berkovic, Samuel
Bernacki, Chaskiel
Birnbaum, Anna
Birnbaum, Livia
Blain, Mike
Bleier, Viola
Blobstein, Ludvik
Blum, Julius
Bogner, Ervin
Brandstein, Issac
Brandt, Lazar
Braunheim (née Abraham), Ruzena
Braunsteinova, Blanka
Breitburg, Victor
Brody, Simon
Buki (née Zisovic), Luisa
Buncel, Erwin
Buncel (née Feldmann), Elizabeth
Chaimovic, Fay
Chaimovic, Karel
Czuker, Jan
Danzig, Eugene
Danzig, Miklos
Davidovic (née Dub), Ruzena
Davidson, Martin
Dennett (neé Zweig), Stepanka
Deutsch, Ignac
Deutsch, Zoltan
Diamond, Joe
Eckstein, David
Edelstein, Lazar
Ehrman, Alzbeta
Eigner, Agata
Eisman, Eva
Farkas, Arnold
Farkas, Efraim
Farkas, Eva
Farkas, Jacob
Farkas, Salomon
Feige, Marija
Feuerstein, Herman
Feuerstein (née Weinberger), Irene
Fischer, Berta
Fischer, Cecilia
Fisher, Marketa
Fixler, Adolf
Frank, Peter
Franklin (née Weiss), Elizabeth
Fried, Artur
Fried, Desidier
Friedman, Arnost
Friedman, Edith
Friedman, Hedvika
Friedman, Moric
Friedman, Hedi
Friedmann, Alexander
Friedmann, Fritz
Frischmann, Ladislav
Frischmann, Vilem
Furst (née Zelmanovic), Zipora
Galkacova, Susanne
Geddy, Leo*
Goldschild, Desider
Graf, Pavel
Gross, Samuel
Gross, Alexander
Grossman, Josef
Grossman (née Vermes), Erika
Gruenberg, Vilem
Gruenfeld, Herman
Gruenfeld, Otto
Gruenwald, Ester
Gryn, Hugo
Halpert, Oskar
Hamburger, Julius
Hamermesch (née Rosenberg), Helena
Hans (née Zuckermandl), Renee
Hayber (neé Gross), Rosalyn
Heimfeld, Ladislav
Herman, Abraham
Herman, David
Herscovic, Israel
Herszkowicz, David
Herz, Peter
Himmel, Jan
Hochman, Martin
Hoffman, Adolf
Hoffman, Martin
Hofman, Ruzena
Honey, Michael
Husserl, Zdenka
Hymans, Alfred
Ickovic, Etelka
Ickovic, Cevenka
Jacubovic, Lenke
Jakubovic, Chaim
Jakubovic, Sara
Jakubovic, Moses
Jakubovic, Zlata
Jakubowic, Armand Otto
Joseph (née Scwarz), Eva
Junger, Benjamin
Kahan, Dezider
Kaiser, Sara
Kaiser, Miriam
Kaletzka, Nelly
Kalir (née Freilichova), Josefa
Kaufmann, Bernard

Kest, Frida
Klein, Miklos
Klein, Andrej
Klein, Avraham
Klein, Gisella
Klein, Josef
Klein, Marija
Klein, Tomas
Kleinmann, Vojtech
Kornhauser (née Liberman), Sarah
Lampert, Moshe

Lang, Karel
Lazarovic, Charlotte
Lebovic, Fani
Lebovic, Jakub
Lebovic, Josef
Lebovic, Otakar
Lebovic, Ruzena
Lerner, Etel
Lerner (née Perlmutter), Blanka
Lesiak (née Kohn), Estera
Levy (née Slomovic), Rachel
Liberman, Alfred
Lipschitz, Desider
Lipschitz, Evzen
Luger, Salamon
Luger, Herman
Luger, Mendel
Marcovic, Miroslav
Markovic, Irene
Markovicova, Serena
Markow (née Hollander), Ruzena
Marmelsteinova, Vilma
Mauskopf, Erwin
Mauskopf, Rosi
Mermelstein, Steve
Moscovicova, Edita
Moscowicz (née Abish), Sylvia
Moskovic, Lily
Moskovicova, Gisella
Nasch, Bernat
Neuman, Jiri
Neumann, Emil
Neumann, Herman
Noe, Etelka
Noe, Salomon
Oesterreicherova, Luisa
Offner, Dolly
Osterreicher, Magda
Palan, Vera
Palkowic, Armin
Papir, Gita
Pawlowski, Abraham
Perl, Josef
Piasetzki (née Zimlichman), Fay
Pinkas, Benjamin
Prizant, Dora
Reil, Bernard
Rezmocicova, Ester
Rieder (née Zelikovic), Helen
Rosenberg, Mendel
Rosenberg, Bella
Rosenberg, Chaim
Rosenberg (née Herskovic), Magda
Rosenthal, Richard
Rosenthal, Alexander
Roth, David
Rubenstein (née Basch), Rose
Sabova, Berta
Sabova, Marcia
Salamon, Tibor
Samuel, Charlotte
Schaechter, David
Schafer (née Safar), Dora
Schindler (neé Swartz), Rose
Schonfeld (neé Handelsmann), Malvina
Schoonkopf, Edita
Schreiber, Judith
Schreier (née Weingarten), Edita
Schulsinger, Abraham
Schwarcz, Abraham
Schwartz, Alfred
Schwartz, Emil
Schwartz, Otto
Schwartz, Eva
Schwarz, Magarita
Schwimmer, Edita
Seiden (née Berman), Bella
Sherman (née Stern), Judith
Shubi (née Perl), Manci
Simkovic, Samuel
Singer, Helene
Slomovic, Chaskel
Slomovic, Jolana
Slomovic, Rachel
Slomovic, Helena
Speigel, Estvan
Staman (née Berkovic), Pauline

Steinberg, Eva
Stern, Eva
Stern, Melanie
Stern, Vera
Stern, Tamas
Stern, Herman
Stern, Eliska
Stern, Meir
Sternova, Magda
Stroh, Peter
Sunog, Arnost
Tannenbaum, Vilem
Tanner (née Graf), Hanna
Taub, Herman
Taub, Israel
Teichmann, Mendel
Tenenbaum, Zelik
Tischler (neé Folkart), Lydia
Vegh, Maurice
Veis, Helena
Vogelhut, Hirsch
Wachsmann, Elizabeth
Wagshal, Leon
Wajnryt, Heniek
Walter (née Lampert), Sarah
Weber (neé Markovic), Zita
Weinberg, Felix
Weiss, Bernard
Weiss, Imrich
Weiss, Pirozka
Weiss, Sari
Weisser, Herman
Weisser, Michael
Wheeler (née Stern), Mirjam
Winkler, Emil
Wolf, Jan
Zelig, Josef
Zelkovic, Fanny
Zelkovic, Herman Hersch
Zelkovic, Willie
Zeller, Josef
Zelman, Ludwig
Zucker (neé Eisdoerfer), Veronica
Zweig, David

Old Photograph of the synagogue in Berehove, then Czechoslovakia.

Photograph of the Carpathian Mountains in the 1930s.

Photograph of Rachel Levy on arrival in the UK in 1946.

Old photograph of Masaryk Sq in then Chust, Czecoslovakia.

The Slomovic Sisters: Jolana, Helena & Ruzena

Photograph of the Old Town, Prague, Czechia.

Photograph of the synagogue in Mukačevo, Czechoslovakia in the 1930s.

Photograph of Hugo Gryn after the liberation.

Photograph of Pre-World War II of Gruss aus Weisskirchen in Czechoslovakia.

Photograph of Bernard Reil in Old Moat School, 1946.

Photograph of Užhorod, Czechoslovakia in the 1930s.

Photograph Erika Vermes 1932-33 in her father's studio in Topolcany, Slovakia

Photograph of Willie (Vilem) Zelovic ( on the left) and Hersi Zelovic (with glasses)

Photograph of Košice Synagogue, Slovakia.