Dita Kraus, born Edith Polachová in Prague in 1929, survived Theresienstadt, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen and became known as the “Librarian of Auschwitz” for secretly caring for books used to educate children inside the camp.
Her childhood in Czechoslovakia was shattered by the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939. Anti-Jewish laws stripped her family of their rights and possessions, while Dita and other Jewish children were banned from attending school. In 1942, Dita and her family were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, where overcrowding, starvation and disease became part of everyday life. Despite these conditions, Jewish educators secretly continued teaching children and attempting to preserve a sense of normality.
In late 1943, the family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, Dita encountered Fredy Hirsch and became responsible for a tiny collection of books secretly used for children's education in the so-called family camp. Possessing books could bring severe punishment, yet the teenage prisoner helped hide and protect them, earning her the later title “The Librarian of Auschwitz.”
Dita endured forced labour, constant fear and devastating personal loss before eventually being transferred to Bergen-Belsen. Her story is not only one of survival, but also of courage and quiet resistance against a system designed to strip prisoners of their dignity and humanity.
This documentary explores Dita Kraus’s remarkable life while examining the persecution of Czech Jews, the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau and the importance of education and knowledge as forms of resistance during the Holocaust.
This episode is part of the series Survivors of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution.
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