Heinz Prossnitz Collection

Heinz Prossnitz Collection
 
 Heinz Prossnitz was born in Czechoslovakia in 1926. Following the German occupation of Czechia and Moravia in March 1939, Heinz joined the Maccabi Hatzair movement in Prague. His "Forbearance" group numbered ten members and it was led by Fredy Hirsch, who was much admired among the Jewish youth in the Protectorate. During the 1940/1941 school year Heinz studied in the Jugend-Aliya [Youth Aliyah] school, which prepared pupils for aliya to Eretz Israel and was therefore permitted by the German authorities. The school was closed in summer 1941 and the situation of the Jews deteriorated, including the imposition of the decree regarding wearing the yellow badge. In early October 1941 Fredy Hirsch informed the leaders of the youth groups about the Germans' intention to send approximately 5,000 of Prague's Jews to the East, to the Lodz Ghetto. The "Forbearance" group led by Heinz organized help for the deportees, even before the deportation. When postcards arrived from the deportees, including among them several of the members of the "Forbearance" group, regarding the living conditions, the remaining members of the groups established a joint fund. The fund served the purpose of sending money and also food parcels to friends and deportees who requested help later on. Of the 5,002 Prague Jews who were in the Lodz Ghetto, 276 of them survived; some of them survived thanks to the parcels that were organized by Heinz. 
 
 Following the establishment of the Theresienstadt Ghetto, the first transport of Czech Jews arrived there on 24/11/1941, including Fredy Hirsch. During 1942 all of the remaining members of the "Forbearance" group were deported to Theresienstadt. Heinz and his parents remained in Prague. Heinz' father - Fritz Prossnitz - who was the accountant of the Jewish community in Prague, was defined as an essential worker by the Germans, for the purpose of administering the accounts of the Jewish confiscated property, and as a result Heinz and his parents were not deported with the remaining members of the community in 1943. Heinz began on his own to organize the sending of parcels to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, for his friends and for members of Maccabi Hatzair and for anyone who sent a request. He worked at a vegetable garden and the money that he earned was dedicated to the purchase of goods, for the parcels for his friends. He established a supply network with the help of non-Jewish friends or half-Jews. Some of the parcels were sent by means of two contact persons - Paul Israel Roth from Breslau and Hans Bauer from Dresden. Heinz was helped in Prague by two women friends who were half-Jews - Erika (Eka) Wolfová and Edith (Noemi) Březinová. The parcels contained mainly potatoes and bread, and as much as possible also other types of food. On 06/09/1943 transports numbering 5,000 persons (including Fredy Hirsch) were sent from Theresienstadt to the families camp in Birkenau camp. Heinz also succeeded in sending parcels there. While Heinz was waiting to be deported to Theresienstadt on 02/06/1944, he prepared a list of the amount of food goods that he had sent to the families camp in Birkenau. 
 
 The Prossnitz family was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 27/10/1944 along with the last 18 members of the community. The next day, on 28/10/1944, they were included in a transport to Auschwitz camp. Upon their arrival to Auschwitz all of the members of the group from Prague, including Heinz Prossnitz, were sent to the gas chambers without undergoing a selection. The two women friends, Edith and Erika, continued - according to Heinz' instructions - to send parcels to women who were sent from the families camp to labor in the clearing of the ruins of Hamburg and to the men who were sent to forced labor in Schwarzheide camp.
 
 In Heinz Prossnitz' estate an envelope was found with a note written by Heinz: "Even if I will arrive to Eretz Israel dead, I do not want to rot in Czech soil".