Heros I Met

[Pisis]

Here I will post pictures of WW2 heros - veterans and survivors - I had the honour to meet personally.

This one is Colonel Petr Uruba (15th Dec 1915) >> more info << with his wife. He flew Wellingtons with No. 311 Czechoslovak Squadron RAF. On 6th Feb 1942, he fell into captivity and spent the rest of the war in various POW camps.

"Krieg ist eine große Scheiße" he told me.

 

[Pisis]

Adolf Burger (12th Aug 1917). A Holocaust survivor.
He survived three concentration camps; Auschitz II - Birkenau, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen. Not to mention that Birkenau was hell on earth...

 

[Pisis]

General Adolf Vodička (Jan 1913). A Czechoslovak interbrigadist from the Spanish Civil War. As a Jew, he was not accepted by the Czechoslovak exile army in Great Britain, thus he joined Pioneer Corps and served as a fire and rescue worker during the whole WW2.

 

[Pisis]

Colonel MUDr. Gustav Singer, CSc. (1913?)
Born in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire's capital Wien, he moved to Czechoslovakia after the Austrian "anschluß" in 1938. After the ocuppation of the Czechlands in 1939, he fled to USSR, where joined Czechoslovak Eastern Exile Army and served as a field docotor for the whole war.

"I had four nationalities" once he said. "I was born in Austria, we spoke German. After German ocuppation of Austria, I escaped to Prague and I was sick to say I have German nationality, so I said I'm Austrian. When I crossed the Polish-Soviet borders in 1940, which was a crime by the way, I was interviewed by one NKVD investigator. He said: 'But you're a Jew, who do you hide it. Don't worry, we have freedom in the Soyuz.' and automatically enlisted me into his documents with Jewish nationality. After the war, when I reported myself in the liberated Czechoslovakia, I of course said that I have Jewish nationality. the officer told me: 'No, such thing does not exist by us. We have only German and Hungarian minorities and nationalities Czech and Slovak.' So I chose Czech nationality."

And it is much more this brave man went through. I'm going to do an interview with him soon, so stay tuned.

 

[syscom3]

Thanks Pisis

 

[Pisis]

I have many more, I just don't have that much time to hang around here as I used to... Hopefully I will add some more profiles tomorrow.

 

[evangilder]

Excellent work, Pisis!

 

[Pisis]

Well you should rather thank them then me. But thank you anyway.

 

[Pisis]

Colonel Jan WIENER (1920)

Jan Wiener, a man who has confronted fear and death many times in his long and colourful life. In 1939, the 19-year-old Jewish teenager fled Czechoslovakia, hoping to reach England and join the RAF. Caught hiding under a train in Italy, Wiener was arrested and imprisoned. He managed to escape, and eventually found his way to England. He flew bomber missions over occupied Europe, returning to Prague in 1945. When the Communists took over three years later, Wiener was arrested and imprisoned again, this time as an "enemy of the state." On his release, Jan Wiener fled to the U.S. to start a new life.

 

[evangilder]

More good stuff. What is with your "he-man" pose?

 

[Pisis]

Actually I was pointing at my T-Shirt.
These kids were my students. Except the guy in the blue jacket in the very left and the girl standing right from Mr. Wiener.
I had a bunch of photos with wiener I made in Lidice and in Assasination Museum but later that day I've been robbed so all the pics are gone... Pitty, he had a very nice suit with a RAF badge, I did some portraits with him.

 

[Emac44]

Heroes i met personally. Where do i begin. My own father and his mates from his own Lancaster crew and every Returned Servieman and woman i have had the pleasure of meeting and speaking too.

 

[Pisis]

Well, you have to understand that these people here were taboo until the fall of the commie regime in Nov 1989... Many of them emigrated, most were impriosned and prosecuted, some of them executed. Not mentiong that time is unstoppable, taking people every minute off this world. Today, those are the only surviving few...

 

[Nonskimmer]

Colonel MUDr. Gustav Singer, CSc. (1913?)..."I had four nationalities" once he said. "I was born in Austria, we spoke German. After German ocuppation of Austria, I escaped to Prague and I was sick to say I have German nationality, so I said I'm Austrian. When I crossed the Polish-Soviet borders in 1940, which was a crime by the way, I was interviewed by one NKVD investigator. He said: 'But you're a Jew, who do you hide it. Don't worry, we have freedom in the Soyuz.' and automatically enlisted me into his documents with Jewish nationality. After the war, when I reported myself in the liberated Czechoslovakia, I of course said that I have Jewish nationality. the officer told me: 'No, such thing does not exist by us. We have only German and Hungarian minorities and nationalities Czech and Slovak.' So I chose Czech nationality."

Holy crap, talk about a multi-national!

You've met quite a few fine gentlemen I see. Excellent.

 

[Pisis]

Exactly. And there is hundreds of thousands stories like this in the Czech WW2 history...

 

[timshatz]

Great stuff Pisis, thanks for posting it. Keep it coming. Always good to get these stories out before they die. Once the stories hit the net, they will be read and remembered. Great thing about the net, stuff bounces around here forever.

 

[Pisis]

Thanks Tim. I agree with you fully. That is also why I make my historical projects about those people. My last - and biggest - one, had 82 pages. I still have to translate it though.

Will keep the stories and pictures coming for sure!

 

[timshatz]

Thanks Tim. I agree with you fully. That is also why I make my historical projects about those people. My last - and biggest - one, had 82 pages. I still have to translate it though.

Will keep the stories and pictures coming for sure!

Thanks. Your work is appreciated.

 

[Pisis]

Thanks.

 

[Pisis]

From left: Col. Jan Wiener, me and my better half in March 2008.