It is important to know who our ancestors are and where they came from
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Jan Hauer was born in 1947 in Olomouc as the second of four children of Antonín and Beatrice Hauer. His parents had met in the late years of WW II in Prague after both losing their families. Jan’s father was given out to the police and the Gestapo imprisoned him in Olomouc. His first wife and four children were deported to Auschwitz where they died. His second wife, Jan’s mum, survived imprisonment in camps in Lety u Písku and Terezín. Even after the war his family wasn’t allowed to live in peace because as Sinti, his parents were on a list. Due to doing door-to-door fabric selling, both of them served time in prison. Jan’s relatives were affected by the Act on the Permanent Settlement of Footloose Persons adopted in 1958. Prior to being assigned an apartment he lived with his father and siblings in a trailer in Prague. While his dad was a natural-born bussinessman, Jan learned from his grandfather the craft of grinding. After finishing school he used to beat carpets, distribute coal at around Žižkov, drive a motor crane until settling at Vinohrady for a decade as a grinder and umbrella repairman. His life hobby is searching for his ancestors. As soon as in 1967 he went to Germany for two years with his dad, tracking the war history of his first family. He remained in touch with archives and registers all around Central Europe, and collected historical documents and photos of his ancestors. Jan Hauer died at the end of August 2022.
