Josef Taussig

Josef (Pepek) Taussig (1 December 1914, Hlinsko^[1] – 10 March 1945, Flossenbürg concentration camp) was a Czech journalist.^[2]

Taussig was a journalist with the youth magazine "Hej rup".^[3]

On 5 December 1942, he was transported with his parents, Otto Taussig (1875-1944) and Frederike, née Federer (1886-1944) and at least five other relatives from his home town, Hlinsko, via Pardubice, to Theresienstadt concentration camp (transport Cf).^[4] In Theresienstadt, he lectured; produced plays and cabarets. He was transported again on 28 October 1944 (with his parents and one other relative^[5]) to Auschwitz concentration camp on the last train from Theresienstadt (transport Ev); and finally in January 1945 he survived a death march to Flossenbürg, where he died on 10 March 1945, five weeks before the U.S. Army's 90th Infantry Division freed the camp on April 23, 1945.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

His elder brother, František (Franta) Taussig (1909-1941), editor of the Communist newspaper ‘Pravo’ in Brno and a member of the first illegal central committee, was executed by the Gestapo on 29 September 1941 in a former cavalry barracks near Ruzne airport with fellow committee members Dr. Jan Frank and Otto Synek.^[11] Frantisek was the first husband of Jarmila Taussigová-Potůčková (1914-2011), also an active Communist, who survived deportation to Ravensbrück concentration camp and, after the war, imprisonment by the Communists following the Slánský show trials.^[12]

References

1. Family records. He was a grandson of the Hlinsko industrialist Josef Taussig (1829-1905), founder in 1850 of the firm Josef Taussig (Shawl-, Tücher-, Modewaren- und Teppichfabrik). The four storey factory built in Hlinsko in 1856 still exists.
2. Aus dem literarischen Nachlass von Josef Taussig (The Literary Inheritance of Josef Taussig) 2001 Summary: Josef Taussig (1914-1945) was one of the leading representatives of Czech theatre and cabaret in the Terezin ghetto. Following is a range from his personal papers: anecdotes, aphorisms and a short story “Protection and ability”. Satirical, wry and laconical, the stories are quite characteristic of the Czech-Jewish humour in Terezin, incorporating the new environment with a sharp and critical eye. At the same time, the stories are much influenced by old motifs and themes, such as Schelmenroman.
3. Judaica bohemiae Státní židovské muzeum (Czech Republic) - 1982 "Unter Inv.-Nr. 326 befindet sich dort auch eine Fotokopie der Kritik der Theresienstädter Kabaretts von Josef Taussig (das Originaldokument ist Privateigentum von M. Kárny). 1. Dezember 1914 Prag, gest. 10. März 1945 KZ Flossenbürg. Schauspieler, Mitarbeiter bei der Jugendzeitschrift "Hej rup", 1942 Deportation "In 1971 M. Karny prepared for publication part of manuscripts left by Josef Taussig, an outstanding member of the Terezin organization of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, journalist, agitator, and lecturer, before the war one of"
4. The transport details can be found on the Terezín and Yad Vashem databases. The other deportees were Otto Taussig's eldest brother, Ludwig (1869-1943)who had succeeded their father as proprietor of the firm Josef Taussig, Fritz Neumann (1890-1944), proprietor of the Jihlava glass manufacturing firm Alois Neumann, his wife Valerie (1901-1944) and children Marianne (1924-2009) and Jan (1928-1944). Marianne was the only one of the eight deportees who survived subsequent deportations to Auschwitz. She also survived Gross-Rosen and was eventually liberated from Bergen-Belsen.
5. Stefan Löffler (1882-1944), managing director (1936-1939) of the Sušice shoe manufacturing firm Schwarzkopf & Co. Leder-Schuh-und Riemenfabriken AG; previously director and general manager (1927-1936) at G Engelhardt & Co (Chasalla) Schuhfabrik AG in Kassel.
6. Taussig, Josef: Die Theresienstaedter Kabaretts [Excerpts from his work, edited by Eva Sormova.] (207-246). RW 1055 Theresienstaedter Studien und Dokumente (1995). Partial contents: Karny, Miroslav:
7. Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente Nadace Terezínská iniciativa - 2007 "Josef Taussig, ein Mithäftling, der an unterschiedlichen Kabaretts in Theresienstadt beteiligt war, erwähnt dieses Kabarett unter den Stücken von Theresienstädter Autoren, die „das Befreite Theater kannten und bewunderten" (331)."
8. Von Sehnsucht wird man hier nicht fett: Walter Lindenbaum, Herbert Exenberger, Eckart Früh - 1998 "eine Analyse von Josef Taussig über den Stellenwert des Kabaretts in dieser Zwangsgemeinschaft. ... Josef Taussig. Über die Theresienstädter Kabaretts. In: Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente, 1994, Hrsg. M. Kärny, R. Kemper,"
9. Kultur und Krieg Wolfgang J. Mommsen, Elisabeth Müller-Luckner, Stiftung Historisches Kolleg (Munich, Germany) - 1996 - 282 "Nicht minder interessant sind die von Eva Sormovä kommentierten Aufzeichnungen von Josef Taussig (1914-1945) „Uber die Theresienstädter Kabaretts". "
10. "Des Lagers Stimme" - Musik im KZ: Guido Fackler - 2000
11. The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia – Facing the Holocaust, Livia Rothkirchen, University of Nebraska Press 2005, pp 193-194.
12. Die Taussigs: Juedische Familien- und Leidensgeschichte in Boehmen und Maehren 1909-1989; trans. from Czech by Liselotte Teltscherova; published in 2000 by Hartung-Gorre Verlag