Somehow I prepared myself for the reality that I´m going to die
Mr. Alois Holub was born on June 11th, 1917 in the village of Bítovcice. In the years 1932-1936 he studied for a joiner in the famous master Jelínek´s workshop in Valašské Meziříčí. In 1938 he was called up to the army. He signed up in Jilemnice, but soon after that he was hospitalized in Jihlava due to a serious illness. (After the war he was permanently excluded off out of the armed services due to his weak health condition.) After returning from the hospital and the dissolution of the Czechoslovak army, he returned back to master Jelinek´s workshop in Valašské Meziříčí and worked as a carpenter. He met his friends here which helped him to join the illegal resistance activity organized by Czechoslovak Communist party. Mr. Holub entered the Czechoslovak Communist party on May 19th 1939, but he never had any big opportunites for further resistance activity. The whole resistance group was revealed in 1941 and Alois Holub has been arrested. He was immediately transported to Brno where he became a witness of the mass executions in Kounic Dormitory. After spending six months in the prison he was transported first to the detention camp in Brno, Pod Kaštany Street. After that he was taken to the concentration camp in Mauthausen. He worked there in the carpenter‘s workshop. Thanks to his know-how (he was making ornament boxes and cassettes decorated with inlay for the SS officers) he lived through to the end of the war. As the liberation was getting closer, the Germans built a tent ghetto (Zeltenlager) for Jews collected from other camps. Mr. Alois Holub used to bring groceries into this tent. Mr. Sinai Adler - the man saved by Mr. Holub - later published a book about the camp and he also nominated Mr. Holub for the ´Righteous among the Nations´ Award that is given by Jewish Yad Vashem Committee. Mr. Alois Holub was given the award. After the war Mr. Holub worked at the Rieger-Kloss organ factory.