©Langhans Archiv Praha
Jindřich Waldes had been a successful industrialist since the turn of the century. His company manufactured snaps in Prague, Dresden, Paris, London and New York. He was a Jew, and recognized the threat to his family at an early stage. In 1938 he sent them to safety in the U.S., but himself remained in Prague. After the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Germans began expropriating companies based there. Waldes himself was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp after the war began. There he suffered a diabetes collapse – which did not, however, prevent the SS from blackmailing him. After relinquishing his fortune, his patents and his factories, he was released in 1941 and permitted to go to Cuba. He died shortly before his arrival in the U.S.
