Stanislav Motl: Antonín Kalinas Kinder (Děti Antonína Kaliny) – Translation

Translation from Czech into German in collaboration with my colleague Kateřina Návarová

He lived in hell, yet he never lost his faith in life. For six years, he stared death in the face every day. But he was able to cast it out with courage, willpower, and conviction.

His name was Antonín Kalina, and he came from Třebíč.

Under the inhumane conditions of the Buchenwald concentration camp, he accomplished something that can only be described as a miracle. He saved 1,000 children from death. The youngest was 3 years old, the oldest barely 18.
A rescue operation unparalleled in the history of World War II…

In 2012, Antonín Kalina became the last Czech to receive the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations in Israel.
He himself was a prisoner in the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. A political prisoner whose Gestapo files bore the note “Return not desired.”

Among the children he was able to save from the relentless horrors of National Socialism were later world-famous artists, writers, Nobel Prize winners, and scientists.

Kalina’s Children…

This book, written by reporter and writer Stanislav Motl, is the result of several years of intensive historical research. He vividly and empathetically recounts this true and, at the same time, almost unbelievable story, taking us to the heart of those dramatic events. Eyewitnesses and living relatives of the protagonists recount events that take our breath away even decades later.

The book contains 200 documentary photographs.

This edition is complemented by the unique, previously unpublished memoirs of Antonín Kalina. They come from the estate of his fellow inmate and lifelong friend, Dr. Jindřich Flusser.

The nearly sixty-page typescript uncovers blank spots in the history of the Buchenwald concentration camp and the repressive Nazi system. For the very first time, the background to the armed uprising, in which Antonín Kalina participated as one of the main organizers, is illuminated.

Above all, readers will learn previously unknown details about the rescue of several hundred children destined for death. This unique rescue operation secured Antonín Kalina a lasting place in the history of global resistance against Nazism.