Jindřich Waldes

Immediately after the occupation of the remaining territories of Czechoslovakia by the Third Reich, the Czech patriot and Jewish manufacturer and art collector Jindřich Waldes was arrested by the Gestapo on September 1, 1939. On September 1, 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo and forced to hand over part of his art collection to the National Gallery. On September 10, 1939, he was deported to the Dachau concentration camp. On September 26 of the same year, he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp.

In 1941, his family, who had been sent to the USA before the occupation of Jindřich Waldes, managed to buy his release. They paid the National Socialist regime 8 million Czech crowns (approx. 1 million Reichsmark or 250,000 US dollars) in ransom money.

In Buchenwald, Jindřich Waldes suffered a diabetic attack and was imprisoned from 11 April 1940 until his release. He was held in the prison hospital from April 11, 1940 until his release on June 2, 1941.

After he renounced his assets, patents and factories, he was released in 1941 and allowed to emigrate to the USA. The Gestapo transported Waldes by plane to Lisbon (Portugal), where he boarded a passenger ship to the USA. However, Waldes did not survive the journey and died under dubious circumstances on the ship, which docked in Havana (Cuba) for a stopover in May 1941.

In February 1945, the villa was damaged by an accidental air raid on Prague.