Educational Program Diary of Otto Wolf

From Thursday to Sunday, March 4 – 7^th students of the Prerov Teachers College took part in the unique program, which focused on a life of Otto Wolf and his family. Otto Wolf was born in Mohelnice on June 27, 1927. His parents were Jewish. Shortly after the Nazi occupation they moved to a village of Trsice. To avoid being deported to a concentration camp, Otto, together with his parents and a sister, lived from 1942 to 1945 by hiding in the forest or in the attics in village of Trsice.

They survived for almost three years thanks to help of their Christian friends.  Otto Wolf started to write a diary beginning on the first day of hiding. His diary is a unique and important document about co-existence of Jewish and Christian people during the Nazi occupation. After some time almost all villagers knew about Wolf’s family, but no one betrayed them, even though everyone knew they risk their own lives.

Three weeks before the end of the war Otto was captured by an accident during an anti guerilla raid conducted by the German secret police. He was badly tortured, apparently even his tongue was cut off, but he never revealed even his name, names of his protectors, or the hiding place of his family. Otto was shot and burnt to death together with other 18 men

on April 20th, 1945. All of them were accused of being resistance fighters. Otto’s parents

and sister Felicitas survived in their shelter.

The Diary of Otto Wolf  is certainly, in several instances, comparable to The Diary of Anne Frank. Anne started to write, when she was 13, Otto was 15, in both cases the first entries

are from summer 1942, Anne’s and Otto’s fathers survived and attempted to publish the diaries. However, there is a big difference. Anne Frank’s diary was published two years after the end of WWII, in 1947, then translated into many languages and soon became one of the most famous books about Holocaust in the world. Publishing of Otto’s diary was not favored by authorities in Czechoslovakia for a long time. First and only edition of his diary appeared

a half century after the end of war, in 1997 (after the Velvet Revolution).

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The educational game begun shortly after Teachers College students arrived to the Mohelnice train station. There they had to move almost seventy years back in time to 1942. A person dressed like a German police officer was waiting in the station. He asked them for ID, told them they are Jews, confiscated all their luggage and possessions (including cell phones) and ordered them to wait in a station. A policeman told them he will come back with a truck, which will take them to a prison. A bystander advised students/refugees to run away to a bus station and to try to get to the village of Radnice. He gave them a name of a man who might shelter them. Students traveled by a bus to a place near Radnice and than walked about two miles through a forest to the village. They had just a simple map. Most of them have never been in the area before.

Refugees found their man in the village. However, he was not too excited about their visit. After some hesitation he invited them inside, gave them a tee and told them, they can not stay in a house for a long time, because Nazis are everywhere. After about 45 minutes German police appeared in a front of the house. Refugees ran to a back room before police got inside the house. The house owner begged police to leave him alone and swore there is no one in his house. There were lots of shouting and pushing there, but refugees were not found. After this incident with police the house was not safe and therefore refugees had to leave.  They found shelter in an old school building. During the night more dramatic events followed, including a walk through a forest to a guerilla bunker, searching for food hidden in a barn, arrests and executions.

All events were carefully planed ahead and described in the script, which was prepared by Marek Dolezel, who studies acting at the university (JAMU in Brno). Veronika Fejfarova and Katka Mikanova from the same university assisted him with acting part of the program. Teachers College students did not know details of the script. All events and incidents came always as a surprise to them. The program was prepared and executed in a co-operation with the Foundation for Respect and Tolerance.

“According the script we got new names and ID cards. During my journey to an unknown village I started to assume my new identity. Very soon I realized I am scared. I was afraid of being captured. I saw arrests and violence around me. I started to cry. I must say that during this play I went through the worst experience in my life.  I did not know how to react. However, in the end I thanked organizers for this experience, because I recognized that as a result of the program I now much better understand what injustice, violence and wars are about,” said student Marcela Soldánová from the Prerov Teaches College.

On Sunday students met Mr. Igor Skrobal, who was born in Mohelnice in 1920s. He talked to them about life in the town before the war. He told them several stories about his Jewish schoolmates and friends. He also talked about Otto Wolf and his family. Mr. Skrobal knew them very well. He also mentioned Otto's older brother Kurt, a student of a medicine, who in 1939 escaped to Russia, where he joined the Czech army unit and fought Nazis on the Eastern front. He was killed in the battle by Sokolovo in 1943. Kurt was declared as one of the heroes of this battle and was decorated by several distinctions, including the Order of the White Lion. 

In a closing ceremony the Professor Elie Wiesel Prize was awarded to the teacher Zdenka Micova. She received the prize for her extraordinary educational activities and for promoting and sharing ideas of respect and tolerance with her students. The award was established in 2007 by the Foundation Respect and Tolerance with the consent of the Nobel Prize Winner Prof. Elie Wiesel, who is the honorary member of the foundation.