Consultant in perinatal pathology Leeds Maternity Hospital 1963-80 (b Spaaz, Bohemia, 1915; q Prague, 1938; FRCPath), died from the complications of Parkinson's disease on 13 June 2004.
Hans' early life reflected the turmoil in central Europe caused by two world wars. A free thinker, he became an atheist aged 12 and a Young Communist at 15. He was politically active while a medical student and when fascism darkened Czechoslovakia, he decided to leave. Using false papers he was on the last Kindertransport for Holland. Once in Britain he enlisted in the Czech army-in-exile, becoming a Royal Army Medical Corps captain. His parents survived Auschwitz, but his only brother died on the forced march from Auschwitz to Dachau. Hans married twice—to Anna and later, as a widower, to Hanna. He leaves three children.
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