H. G. Adler

Hans Günther Adler, who wrote under pseudonym H. G. Adler (July 2, 1910, in Prague – August 21, 1988, in London), was a German language poet, novelist, scholar, and Holocaust survivor.

Born in Prague to Emil and Alice Adler, Hans Günther Adler was a Jew, though not devout. After his graduation in 1935 from Charles University, where he studied music and literature, arts and sciences, he worked as a secretary and teacher at the Urania, a pedagogical institute. This also involved him in some radio broadcasting.

In 1941 he was sent to a Jewish workcamp where he worked until shortly before his deportation to Theresienstadt with his family on February 8, 1942. Adler was to spend two and a half years in Theresienstadt with his family before being deported to Auschwitz. At Theresienstadt, Adler did only minor work, such as room duty and barrack building. His wife, who was a medical doctor and chemist, led the medical central bureau. On Oct 14, 1944 he arrived with his wife and her mother at Auschwitz.

Both women were put in the gas chambers that day. Gertrud could have survived, but refused to leave her mother. Adler was to lose his mother and father and sixteen members of his family to the Holocaust.

On October 28, 1944, Adler was deported to Niederoschel, a subdivision of Buchenwald, and in 1945, to Langenstein, another subdivision of Buchenwald. On April 13, 1945 he was free. From July and December of that year he was near Prague, helping Przemysl Pitter to care for children who had survived the war, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

From October 1945 until February 1947, Adler worked in the Jewish Museum in Prague, where he devoted himself chiefly to the building up of the archives about the times of persecution and the Theresienstadt camp. At this time he was also involved in accumulating the documents from the camp, possibly with the intention of bringing them to Palestine. Although some material was brought to Jerusalem, for the most part this project was not completed.

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