Martha and Waitstill Sharp traveled to Czechoslovakia in 1939 and undertook efforts to relocate families from the Sudetenland. They worked closely with Dr. František Šmakal, the Head of the Red Cross in Czechoslovakia. Dr. Šmakal and his wife, Iva Šmakalová, fled the Sudetenland themselves, committed to protecting Red Cross funds from German confiscation. Dr. Šmakal continued to provide relief assistance until captured by the Gestapo in July 1942. He and his wife were murdered at Mauthausen three months later.
Martha helped the Czechoslovakian government establish a home for refugees at the Lysá nad Labem castle outside Prague. Yehuda Bacon, a young boy from the occupied territories who survived two years in Auschwitz, lived at the castle for a short time. In 1946, Martha connected him to the Youth Aliyah organization, and he emigrated to Israel.
LISTEN! This clip provided by Facing History and Ourselves features Waitstill Sharp describing how he and and his wife, Martha, were asked to begin relief work in Czechoslovakia aiding refugees from Nazi occupation.
Exhibited items :
Official visa permitting Martha Sharp to cross Czechoslovakian borders
Issued by Consulate General of Czechoslovakia, New York, 31 January, 1939
Gift of Martha Sharp Joukowsky
“Suggested Aims and Policy of the American Committee for Relief in Czechoslovakia.”
Committee record, circa 1938
List of organizational goals including the placement of an American relief worker abroad.
Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection
“Consolidated Disbursement Sheet Other Than Office + Maintenance Costs”
Account sheet kept by Waitstill Sharp, 1939
Budgetary notes for relief work in Czechoslovakia including expenditures to partner organizations.
Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection
František Šmakal, M.D., Curriculum Vitae
Prepared 5 August, 1939, page 1
Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection
Iva Šmakalová, Curriculum Vitae
Prepared 5 August, 1939, page 1
Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection
Castle in Lysá nad Labem, Czechoslovakia
Three photographs taken during a site visit March, 1939
Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection
Yehuda Bacon (b. 1929)
Photograph at Bezalel Arts School, 1947
Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection
Star of David badge belonging to Yehuda Bacon
Textile star with German word Jude (Jew), circa 1941
Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection