Address: LONDÝNSKÁ 596/28, PRAGUE 2
Born 05. 11. 1892
Last residence before deportation: Prague XII
Address/place of registration in the Protectorate: Prague XII, Mnichovská 28
Transport Do, no. 33 (11. 09. 1943, Prague -> Terezín)
Transport El, no. 283 (29. 09. 1944, Terezín -> Auschwitz)
Murdered
The Korn Family
The Korn family (father Richard, mother Cecilie, and daughters Vera and Mariana) were a Czech Jewish family from Ostrava. They had a happy life together, full of art, music and nature,
that was cruelly and tragically cut short. Some of their favorite family pastimes were attending opera at one of Ostrava’s two opera houses, and taking vacations to the Tatra mountains in
Slovakia.
Richard was born in Ostrava in 1892. He was an educated, modern, liberal man, not particularly religious, with a great sense of humor. Before the war, Richard and Cecilie together
owned and operated a thriving, imported shoe store on the main square of the city. Richard played music constantly in the house – opera in particular – and transmitted a love of music to
his children. As his surviving daughter Vera recalls, “he believed that the best way to bring up children was to trust them, and his children never broke that trust. He was against all
nationalism, believing that the only thing you can really be proud of is your own achievements.
In 1939, the Nazis seized Ostrava, confiscated the family shoe store, and briefly detained Richard and Cecilie, after which the family relocated to Prague. Richard and Cecilie did their
best to recreate a sense of normalcy at their apartment in the Vinohrady neighborhood, but this became increasingly difficult. The children were only allowed one more year of school, before
this and many other rights were taken away. Richard and Cecilie made plans to emigrate to Chile but, after many delays, these plans were never realized. In 1943, the family was deported
to Terezin. In 1944, they were deported to Auschwitz, where Richard, Cecilie and Mariana were murdered.
What we know about Richard, Cecilie, and Mariana is largely thanks to Vera (born 1927) who survived the war, and in whom their spirit lives on to this day. Vera was held at Auschwitz for two
weeks, but then transported to the Birnbaumel labor camp. She escaped with a friend during the westward relocation of the camp (a “death march”) in 1945. After the war, she returned to
Prague, where she enrolled in art school and searched for news of her family’s fate, which never came. In anticipation of the Soviet takeover, she emigrated to England, where she met and
eventually married Alexander Bondy, a fellow Czech Jew whose family had escaped from Prague before the war broke out. Together they relocated to Montreal, Canada in 1953, where
they found a free, unspoiled country and together started a new life. They had twin boys, who have gone on to have happy lives and families of their own. One was named Richard, after his
grandfather, and the other Thomas, after the great helmsman of the independent Czechoslovakia and friend to the Jews, Tomas Masaryk.
Vera says of Richard, Cecilie and Mariana that “their love sustained me and their moral guidance gave me strength through all the difficulties I have had. I always tried to live my life in
the way I know they would have wanted me to live.” In 1994, for the 50th anniversary of their deportation to Auschwitz, Vera arranged a burial service for Richard, Cecilie and Mariana, at the
Baron de Hirsch cemetery in Montreal. Now, in 2025, their descendants are pleased to install “Stolpersteine,” memorial stones, to keep their memories alive.