František R. Kraus

František R. Kraus (גדעון בן יצחק קראוס Gideon ben Yitzhak with his Hebrew name, also known under his Terezín alter ego who had a holocaust The Terezín Moses (October 14, 1903, Prague - May 19, 1967, Prague) was a Czechoslovak Jewish anti-fascist writer, journalist and editor, member of the resistance movement, sportsperson, and one of the best known Czech holocaust survivors.

He is considered to have written probably the very first autobiographical testimonial on surviving the holocaust (in Terezín Ghetto and Auschwitz) in the world ever. It was published already in June 1945 under the title “Gas, gas… then fire”.

In the interwsr period, he was a journalist of the famed Prager Tagblatt, also Freie Presse, and others, and was an editor in the Czechoslovak Radio, the 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.

Kraus remained to be relatively unknown in the present-day Czech Republic until the 2020’s, his books being refused to be published until 1989 and the collapse of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. His legacy has been rediscovered quite recently (during and after the Covid-19 pandemic) through his posthumously published trilogy on the pre-WWII Prague, its daily Jewish life, and the holocaust in Terezín and Auschwitz. Since, his has been critically acclaimed by both historians and wide Czech community.