Emil Lederer

Emil Lederer and his brother were raised as Jews, despite having an “Aryan” mother. On August 10, 1942, eighteen year-old Emil was deported by the Nazis to the Terezín ghetto. Almost immediately, he began to plan his escape. Concerned that his mother would be punished if his disappearance was noticed, Emil realized he had, somehow, to make his escape outside the Czech border. So he volunteered for transport east to the death camps.

On September 22, he boarded a train bound for Poland. At Dresden, the train turned east. In the dark of night, not knowing where he was, he wriggled out the bathroom window of the moving train and leapt to freedom.

Emil made his way to his mother’s apartment in Prague. It was difficult to remain hidden, since his mother was in contact with the Resistance and the Nazis routinely searched her apartment. After hiding for nearly a year, he attempted to cross the border into Switzerland - only to be caught by the Germans and imprisoned. He again escaped, and, in desperation, returned to his mother’s apartment.

A few months later, he was discovered during one of the routine searches and was sent to the Gestapo prison in Prague, and then on to the Small Fortress at Terezín.

As defeat loomed, the Nazis began to ship the survivors of concentration camps in the East to Terezín. They brought with them a devastating typhoid epidemic. Emil Lederer, among the few Terezín prisoners given inoculation, volunteered to stay on for months after liberation to nurse other prisoners back to health.