Armin Fritsch
Armin and his wife, maria
When Armin Fritsch was born on 20th November 1888 in Brno, the Moravian town was part of Austria-Hungary. After the First World War it was situated in the newly formed Czechoslovakia, and from 1993 is situated in the Czech Republic. Fritsch became a citizen, married the Czech Maria Kautzky and was considered an ethnic German. His German citizenship led him to losing his job in 1937. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the German Army and the establishment of the ‘Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia’ he was re-employed, but into a lower position because he supported Jewish friends.
In April 1945, he fled Brno towards Germany with his wife, three children and mother-in-law. Initially the family was interned in different camps, before they were reunited at the camp Hagibor (near Prague) and then Prosečnice, which was later called Lešany. They had to perform forced labour under horrendous conditions. On 6th February 1946, Armin Fritsch in desperation turned to the Czech Interior Ministry in Prague. He pleaded for himself and the remnants of the family – two children and his mother-in-law were already dead – to be released. He argued that he was never a member of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP – commonly referred to as the Nazi Party) and his Czech wife also never appeared in a political environment. He had automatically been given ‘citizenship of the German Reich’. Their release was rejected and soon after both Armin and his wife died. Later, their son Hugo was permitted to leave the country as the only survivor. The extract from the death register recorded the death of Armin Fritsch from Brno on 21st February 1946 in the internment camp Prosečnice/Lešany. In 2008 Armin Fritsch’s mortal remains were reburied in Cheb, Czech Republic.