The Forgotten Story of Czech Jewish Teens

Judita Matyášová, a Czech journalist and historian, presents the forgotten story of 80 Czech Jewish teens who left Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and went to Denmark in the fall of 1939. They spent four years in Danish foster families and hoping to come to Palestine. In 1943, they had to flee to Sweden, where some of them stayed until the end of the war. Their paths split, to be reunited after 70 years. Judita Matyášová traced these 90-year old witnesses across Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Israel and USA. She co-authored of the script of the film, Into the North, directed by Natasha Dudinski and also created an exhibition about this story. Judita presented her research at Jewish Museum in Copenhagen, Jewish Museum in Prague, Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem and also at the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, Chapman University California.

Judita Matyášová (1979) has been working as a professional journalist for Czech media since 2003. She focuses on historical stories, mainly of Czech emigrants abroad. Judita studied Journalism, Oral History and Longevity Studies at Charles University in Prague. She has been a lecturer of Journalistic Genres for students in their final year of Master program at Charles University Prague since 2017. Together with Jan Jinda she wrote the book, Journeys with Franz Kafka (Prague 2009). She founded the project, Sophie’s Choice / The Czech Way which documented the forgotten Czech stories of teens abroad.