Dr. Hans Polach was born 10.12.1899. He was raised in Bruenn,
the eldest of three sons to his parents Johann and Katherina. His father Johann
a professor of Latin and Greek later served as Senator in the Czechoslovak
Parliament.

Hans studied to become a lawyer. He loved nature and would
go on long hikes with his friends . There he also met his future wife, Liesl
Adler. Together they went mountain climbing, or swimming. They both played the
piano quite well and often went to concerts. Hans was interested in history and
geography; he spent his free time perusing the atlas or reading, especially old
classics.

After their marriage in 1927 he and Liesl moved to Prague
where he was employed in the law department of the Social Security Institute.
Their only child, Dita, was born in 1929. With the Nazi occupation of
Czechoslovakia, he was dismissed from his post and suffered all the
restrictions and humiliations the Germans imposed on the Jews, and finally he
and his family were deported to Ghetto Theresienstadt. A little over a year
later, they were sent from there to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Hans endured the hunger and cold for only 6 weeks. He died on February 5. 1944,
a so-called natural death, thereby being spared death in the gas-chambers,
which was the fate of the rest of the camp inmates.