Miloš Volf
born June 2, 1924
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Miloš Volf before his arrest, 1942 (private collection)
With his Father in Flossenbürg
Miloš Volf grew up in Tábor in southern Bohemia. He attended high school and worked in his father’s colonial goods store. The Volf family joined the Czech resistance under the German occupation. Fifteen-year-old Miloš worked as a liaison for the underground movement. His parents hid people wanted by the Gestapo. In February 1943, Volf’s entire family was arrested.
After brutal interrogations and months of imprisonment, Miloš Volf and his father were transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp in early 1944. Both were put to work, first in the quarry, and later in aircraft production for the Messerschmitt company. Miloš Volf’s artistic talent helped him survive. He painted pictures for SS men and Kapos in exchange for small amounts of extra food. He also secretly drew caricatures of life in the camp. In April 1945, father and son were liberated during one of the death marches.
Miloš Volf: Písarˇ (Block Scribe), 1944 (private collection)
Miloš Volf worked as a scribe in block six. He portrays himself in the caricature.
Volf and his father returned to Tábor. Volf’s mother had also survived her imprisonment in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. In socialist Czechoslovakia, the democratically inclined family was again persecuted. In the late 1940s, Volf’s father was placed in a work camp. After the “Prague Spring,” Miloš Volf lost his position in television. Even in his old age, Volf dedicated himself to German-Czech reconciliation.
Miloš Volf and his father after their return to Tábor, May 1945 (private collection)