Urbánek Zdenék

Urbánek, Zdenék The writer and publicist Zdenék Urbánek (b.1917) was a member of a liberal, enlightened group that included many Jews, which formed around the poet Kamil Bednář. Following the roundup of many of Urbánek’s Jewish friends and their relocation to the Theresienstadt ghetto and Urbánek’s discovery that there was a serious lack of food there, Urbánek initiated the delivery of food packages to the ghetto. His non-Jewish friends in Prague agreed to donate some of their food allowances, and his farming friend gave him some of his crops, and his wife, Věra, baked. In 1942, Urbánek hid a Jewish couple in his house – whom he can remember only by their aliases, Katia and Pavel – with their young daughter, when they decided to evade the order to be deported to Theresienstadt. The family stayed there for three weeks and then moved to a farm further south where they were offered a permanent safe shelter. There, they survived. In January 1945, a number of forced laborers from the labor camp Kurzbach (in the Generalgouvernement) were marched toward Gross-Rosen. After two days on foot, a group of seven Czech women, survivors of Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, escaped. They found food and clothes, including scarves to cover their shaved heads, in deserted houses. On January 29, the group arrived in Prague and decided to split up and try their luck independently. One of the fugitives, Anita Přemslerová (later Hiršalová), turned to the brother of Gustav Sors, an acquaintance from Theresienstadt. His friends from the writers’ group recommended sending her to Urbánek, who welcomed her into his home without hesitation. There, she was well taken care of and provided with food as well as emotional support. She stayed there until the end of the war. After the liberation, Urbánek’s house became a way station for many refugees waiting for the authorities to help them return to their homes. On November 18, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Zdeňek Urbánek as Righteous Among theNations.