Gonda Redlich (1916–1944)

Egon "Gonda" Redlich was born in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, the youngest of five children in a Jewish family. As a young man, he became active in the Zionist movement. He wrote articles, gave lectures, and organized cultural evenings. After Nazi Germany annexed his homeland, he had to leave his law studies at the Charles University in Prague, but carried on his Zionist activities for Hechalutz. In the fall of 1939, he managed to organize, together with a Danish charity organization, an operation that sent 80 Czechoslovak children abroad to safety. In December 1941, at age 25, he was deported to the Nazi ghetto and concentration camp at Terezin (Theresienstadt), where the elders made him the head of the youth welfare department, which was in charge of thousands of children ranging in age from newborns to teenagers. In January 1942, he began keeping a personal diary, chronicling the hardship and anguish of life in the camp, the attempts the Jews made to create a cultural and social life, and the disease, death, rumors, and hopes that were part of their daily existence. In September 1942, he married Gertruda Baecková, with whom he had lived in Prague before they were sent to Terezín. In March 1944, she gave birth to their son Dan. In October of that year, the three of them were deported on one of the last waves of transports to the death camp of Auschwitz. Before he left, Gonda concealed his diary in an attic, where it remained until discovered by Czech workers in 1967. The English translation was published in 2015 under the title The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich.