Object numberM1995/022:002
DescriptionCitizenship certificate certifying that Dezider and Margaret Hosek are Czech citizens, dated 30 September 1946. This certificate was obtained when the family returned to Brno after spending the war years in hiding in the Hungarian countryside.
Part of a collection of photographs and documents relating to Desider and Margaret Hosek (formerly Hoschberger) and the Aschkenes family who lived in Brno, Czechoslovakia before the war. Gretl (Margaret) Aschkenesová was born in 1908 to Wilhelm Aschkenes and Ciperl (Cecilie) nee Holzgrünová. She was the third of four children, with siblings Jindriska (Jetty, born 1903), Jindrich (Heinrich, born 1906) and Anna (born 1910). The Aschkenes family were considerably wealthy; the largest producers of goose down in Brno.
In 1932, Margaret married Desider Hochberger, a soldier in the Czech army who came from a peasant family originally from Slovakia. They had one child, Josef Wilem (Bill), born 1935. Bill was named after his two grandfathers, both who died before his birth. In 1939, they escaped across the Hungarian border and hid in tiny country towns, paying locals for protection with jewellery and cash. When German or Ukrainian soldiers came to round up the Jews, they hid, even hiding under the floorboards of toilets. Desider would leave the family in hiding to spend time fighting with the partisans, sometimes for weeks on end. They survived in hiding for six years, moving constantly.
After liberation by the Russians, they went back to Brno and discovered the fate of their families. Heinrich Aschkenes had escaped to Zagreb, Yugoslavia in early 1940 and made attempts to immigrate to the USA. His immigration was unsuccessful, and he was murdered most likely in 1941. The rest of the family remaining in Brno were deported to Theresienstadt. Jetty Eisingerová (nee Aschkenes) and her young daughter Kitty were deported from there to Riga on 15 January 1942, where they were murdered. Anna and their mother Cecilie were transported on 25 April 1942 to Warsaw ghetto. According to the Hosek family, they were sent from there to Auschwitz and murdered. Around 70 of Desider and Margaret's combined family members were murdered during the Holocaust.
Beginning again, Desider started a business in travel goods and became quite successful. In 1948, following the installation of the communist government, the family were persecuted for being capitalists. Bill was beaten up in the streets by gangs because he was the son of "a capitalist pig". Desider was arrested on a trumped up charge, and was forced him to sign over all possessions to the state or face goal.
Desider had a friend in Sydney who became their sponsor. They arrived in Australia in 1949. They came with 'absolutely nothing', 'penniless', and had to start again. Bill was 14. He went to school for six months, and then had to leave to help support the family. His first job was with Charlie Fredericks jeweller where he did an apprenticeship. Margaret and Desider opened a luggage shop in Beamish Street, Campsie. Bill married Valerie, a fifth generation Australian, in the 1970s. Valerie Hosek has been volunteering at the Sydney Jewish Museum since 1993.
Part of a collection of photographs and documents relating to Desider and Margaret Hosek (formerly Hoschberger) and the Aschkenes family who lived in Brno, Czechoslovakia before the war. Gretl (Margaret) Aschkenesová was born in 1908 to Wilhelm Aschkenes and Ciperl (Cecilie) nee Holzgrünová. She was the third of four children, with siblings Jindriska (Jetty, born 1903), Jindrich (Heinrich, born 1906) and Anna (born 1910). The Aschkenes family were considerably wealthy; the largest producers of goose down in Brno.
In 1932, Margaret married Desider Hochberger, a soldier in the Czech army who came from a peasant family originally from Slovakia. They had one child, Josef Wilem (Bill), born 1935. Bill was named after his two grandfathers, both who died before his birth. In 1939, they escaped across the Hungarian border and hid in tiny country towns, paying locals for protection with jewellery and cash. When German or Ukrainian soldiers came to round up the Jews, they hid, even hiding under the floorboards of toilets. Desider would leave the family in hiding to spend time fighting with the partisans, sometimes for weeks on end. They survived in hiding for six years, moving constantly.
After liberation by the Russians, they went back to Brno and discovered the fate of their families. Heinrich Aschkenes had escaped to Zagreb, Yugoslavia in early 1940 and made attempts to immigrate to the USA. His immigration was unsuccessful, and he was murdered most likely in 1941. The rest of the family remaining in Brno were deported to Theresienstadt. Jetty Eisingerová (nee Aschkenes) and her young daughter Kitty were deported from there to Riga on 15 January 1942, where they were murdered. Anna and their mother Cecilie were transported on 25 April 1942 to Warsaw ghetto. According to the Hosek family, they were sent from there to Auschwitz and murdered. Around 70 of Desider and Margaret's combined family members were murdered during the Holocaust.
Beginning again, Desider started a business in travel goods and became quite successful. In 1948, following the installation of the communist government, the family were persecuted for being capitalists. Bill was beaten up in the streets by gangs because he was the son of "a capitalist pig". Desider was arrested on a trumped up charge, and was forced him to sign over all possessions to the state or face goal.
Desider had a friend in Sydney who became their sponsor. They arrived in Australia in 1949. They came with 'absolutely nothing', 'penniless', and had to start again. Bill was 14. He went to school for six months, and then had to leave to help support the family. His first job was with Charlie Fredericks jeweller where he did an apprenticeship. Margaret and Desider opened a luggage shop in Beamish Street, Campsie. Bill married Valerie, a fifth generation Australian, in the 1970s. Valerie Hosek has been volunteering at the Sydney Jewish Museum since 1993.
Production date 1946-09-30 - 1946-09-30
Subjectcitizenship
Object namecertificates of citizenship
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 210.00 mm
height: 298.00 mm
Language
- English
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs. Valerie Hosek