Two postcards relating to deportation to Theresienstadt

Kurt Thomas (b. Ticho) was born in 1914 in Brno, Moravia (Brno, Czech Republic). Kurt was raised in Boskovice, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic). His father was in the Austrian Army during World War I. Kurt worked in clothes manufacturing until 1936 when he joined the army. He was discharged in February 1939. In March 1942, Kurt, his parents, and his sister were deported to Theresienstadt (Terezi̕n), a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. In April 1942, they were transported to the ghetto in Piaski, Poland (Peski, Belarus). In Piaski, Kurt worked on a farm outside of the ghetto. His family was deported from the ghetto to the Sobibór concentration camp where they died. In November 1942, Kurt was taken to Trawniki, a prison camp in Poland, and from there to Sobibór. In Sobibór, Kurt worked as a medic in the camp infirmary from November 1942 to October 1943. On October 14, 1943, Kurt escaped during the Sobibor uprising. He returned to Piaski and hid on a farm in a small shed. In the summer of 1944, Thomas left the farm and joined a Czechoslovakian military unit until the end of the war. In 1948 Thomas immigrated to the United States.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995 by Kurt M. Thomas