Strauss family: personal papers and corresondence

Julius Strauss (1883-1949) and his second wife Elsa (1887-c1942, née Löwy) lived with their children Gertrude ('Trude') (1914-1983), Marta (1912-1990) and Harry (born 1920) in Prague. Trude got married to pharmacist Jiri (George) Rudolfer (1910-1967) in January 1938. Following the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Wehrmacht on 15 March 1938, Julius Strauss managed to acquire travel permits for his children to leave the country. On 26 March 1939 George, Trude and her step-brother Harry, who had not completed his education at the time, emigrated to England. They initially stayed at a house of one of George's friends near London but soon Harry moved to Derby to work at a factory.

In April 1939, Julius Strauss tried to go to Paris to find accommodation for himself and Elsa but was arrested and returned to Prague. Following this failed attempt to leave the country, Julius Strauss hired a guide to take him over the Tatra mountains to France where he survived the war. The guide returned to Prague to fetch Elsa but she was suspicious of him and refused to go with him. Elsa stayed behind in Prague until she was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp on 15 January 1942, where she perished.

Marta Strauss (1912-1990) and her husband Vilem Lesny (formerly Wilhelm Löwy, born 1902) were deported to Terezin concentration camp in August 1942. In October 1944 Vilem Lesny was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Both were liberated. Vilem Lesny's mother, Berta Löwy, was deported to Terezin in May 1942 and two days after her arrival transported to another camp in the East where she perished.