František R. Kraus
František R. Kraus (October 14, 1903, Prague - May 19, 1967, Prague) was a Czechoslovak Jewish anti-fascist writer, journalist and editor.
He wrote for the famous Prager Tagblatt, Freie Presse, and others, and was an editor in the Czechoslovak Radio, founder of its Shortwave section and speaker for the Foreign section in Czech, German, French and English.
In his literary work, he deals with reflexion of the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia; topics such as human existence, dignity, justice, guilt and hope. Main theme of his short stories is a pictorial world of weird figures and characters from old Prague.
Due to his political prosecution during the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, vast majority of his work was censored and banned. One of his disciples, Arnošt Lustig, considered him to be one of the most important modern Czech writers ever and compared him to authors such as Jack London, Egon Erwin Kisch or Primo Levi and taught his legacy in universities in the United States. However, Kraus still remains to be relatively unknown in the present-day Czech Republic, due to the fact most of his books remain unpublished.
Childhood and early life
František R. Kraus was born in Josefov, then the Jewish quarter in Prague into a Jewish family of Robert Kraus, a travelling salesman and Matylda Kraus née Kollmann, a housewife. As it was common in better well-off Jewish families at that time, he obtained his basic education in a Piarist convent school in Panská street, later he continued at Realschule in v Jindřišská street and he graduated at Classical High School in Kinský palace at the Old Town Square. Because his parents divorced, he could not for financial reasons pursue his academic career but instead, this led him on the track of journalism.
Prewar Czechoslovak Republic
Kraus was a journalist and writer. He belonged to the so-called "Der enge Prager Kreis" or "close Prague circle" (Prager Kreis). Right at the end of the World War I, he started to work for German newspaper, for example for the famous Prager Tagblatt, Prager Presse, Bohemia and others. He had strong ties to the Czech intellectual elite. He was well-befriended with Max Brod, Franz Kafka, (he describes his first encounter in a short story entitled "Džbánek plzeňského" - "A Mug of Pilsner"), Karel Čapek, Jaroslav Hašek, as well as he knew Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and his son Jan Masaryk. However, his literary role-model, family friend and life teacher was "The Angry Reporter" Egon Erwin Kisch. He even lived in his house for some time.
In 1930's, Kraus participated on the foundation of the Czechoslovak Radio, he was an editor of the "Spoken news". He was also active as a reporter, journalist and editor in the Czech News Agency (ČTK) for quite a long time. Collaboration with the Berlin-based magazine Die Grüne Post would often bring him abroad; he reported from Berlin, Vienna but even from outside of Europe.
Kraus was also the whole-country champion in track swimming in the 1930s. He represented the Jewish sport club Hagibor and later the famous Slávia Prague. He also played water polo, soccer and tennis.
In late 1930s, Hitler's Nazi regime was on the rise, and was threatening Czechoslovakia. Kraus often spoke against Nazism - the especially against Konrad Henlein and rise of Nazi powers in the Sudetenland - in his regular radio relations. Therefore, he provoked anger of the Henlein followers who even interpelled against him in the Czechoslovak Parliament.
In May 1938, during the Munich Crisis, he joined the army during mobilization (a story "A Helmet in the Field" ("Přilba v poli")). These events, culminating with the Munich betrayal (the "Runciman at Henlein's" report), had tragic results not solely for him.
Protectorate, resistance, and arrest
Holocaust
Terezín
Literary works
- Gas, gas... then Fire (Plyn, plyn… pak oheň) (1945)
- And Bring Back Our Scattered Ones (A přiveď zpět naše roztroušené)
- David will Live (Originally Shemaryahu seeks God) (David bude žít; Šemarjáhu hledá Boha)
- A Changed Land (Proměněná země) (1957)
- A Hangman Without a Shadow (Kat beze stínu) (written in 1960's, published illegally in samizdat in 1984, officially published in 2003
- Drůš Mauruse Blocha
Sources and further reading
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