Peter Hartman collection

Josef Hartmann, grandfather of Peter Hartman was a goat trader from Přeštice, Pilsen, Czech Republic. He was a devout Jew, very involved with the local synagogue. He became blind but was able to recite the entire Torah from memory. He eventually died of pneumonia, having been deported to Terezin at age 92 in 1942.

His wife Rosa or Ruzena née Sabatova died young. They both came from a town called Švihov, Czech Republic. They had a son Vitéslav, Peter’s father, one of nine children, born in Nezdice near Pilsen. Around 1898 Vitéslav moved to Prague. Keen to expose the exploitation of shop workers he became interested in socialism and a life-long Social Democrat, later cottonwool salesman then established his own wholesale business in the heart of Prague and called it the “Black Rose”, which specialised in horse blankets. He married Melanie Podzahradský from Brno, the daughter of a cottonwool factory owner, having become acquainted through a connection with Vitéslav’s previous employer. 

Peter was born 16.6.1914 in Prague.

Peter had a conventional middle class upbringing. His parents were not particularly observant Jews. At age 15 he was sent to commercial college. He also took private lessons in English. In 1931 he was sent to England to work as an unpaid apprentice with one of his father’s suppliers. The apprenticeship fell through and he began working for a linoleum manufacturers in Staines. He also attended Pitman’s commercial college in London whilst lodging with a family in the suburbs. He returned to work at his father’s business in Prague in 1932, which had expanded into retail as well as wholesale and traded in a range of different floor coverings and blankets. The main carpet and blanket shop was in Havelska Street, Prague.

Peter met Gerry Allan at an English club in Prague, where they struck a long lasting friendship. Gerry was bi-lingual in Czech and English having been born to British parents in Prague.

Peter managed to leave the Czech Republic and escape to the UK on 1 March 1939 shortly before the Nazis invaded. Initially he worked for the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, assisting with the refugees' welfare. He helped when the children arrived on the Nicholas Winton trains. In the meantime Peter’s father continued under the supervision of a commissar, not recognising the threat which the Nazis posed. Gerry Allan along with his mother and sister left for England in April 1939. They took furniture from the Hartmann household, an inventory of which survives in this collection.

After the outbreak of war, Peter’s parents were rehoused in a Dlouha 9, a street where most Jews had to reside until their eventual deportation. They continued sending food parcels and money to Peter until eventually, along with a number of other relatives and friends they were deported to Terezin thence sent on the infamous AAy train to Baranovici and ultimately murdered.

Peter’s sister Zuzana (Susan) was born 28 May 1921. She grew to become a beautiful woman, active in sports and in her late teens she became interested in leftwing politics, to her parents' dismay. Shortly after Peter’s contact with his family ceased. Zuzana must have secretly married Ferda (Ferdinand) Knobloch, a non-Jewish political activist. Zuzana's parents were at the wedding as reluctant witnesses.Zuzana and Ferda stayed to help others evade the Nazis. Zuzana was arrested by the Gestapo, interrogated and tortured in prisons outside Terezin. She was deported to Auschwitz but so far there is no firm evidence as to where she actually died. Ferda’s life was spared not only because he wasn’t Jewish but his medical training meant that he was of service to the Nazis dealing with corpses in Flossenburg concentration camp where he had been incarcerated. Ferda survived the war and went on to become a distinguished psychotherapist in Canada.

Donated 1.3.2016

Donor: Irene East