Jiří Hronek

Czech journalist, playwright and novelist

Jiří Hronek
Born	(1905-05-01)1 May 1905 Roudnice nad Labem, Austria-Hungary
Died	5 March 1987(1987-03-05) (aged 81) Prague, Czechoslovakia
Nationality	Czech

Jiří Hronek, born Jiří Langstein (1 May 1905 – 5 March 1987), was a Czechoslovak journalist, publicist, playwright and novelist.

Biography

Born into a journalistic family, Hronek was the son of editor Isidor Langstein (1879–1942) and Růžena, née Picková (1881–1942). He had a younger sister, Věra (married as Pauknerová, 1910–1942).^[1] The family originally lived in Žižkov and from 1907 in Královské Vinohrady. During 1942, his parents and sister were arrested and deported, victims of the Holocaust. His sister was murdered in Auschwitz,^[2] his mother at Maly Trostenets,^[3] and his father in the Izbica Ghetto.^[4]

Starting in 1925 and until 1936, Hronek worked as a journalist. From 1936, he was editor at Central European Radio in Vienna. Following the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March 1938, he relocated to Paris as correspondent of the publishing house Melantrich. After the occupation of France, he fled to London, where he worked at the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1940 to 1945.^[5]

Following World War II, he returned to Czechoslovakia and worked in various positions. First at the Ministry of Information, where he was the editor-in-chief of Czechoslovak Radio and the editor-in-chief of the Czech News Agency in charge of managing the Pragopress agency.

In 1946, Hronek was part of the Czechoslovak delegation to the founding Congress of the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ) in Copenhagen.^[6] In 1947 he was elected secretary general of the IOJ, a position he served in until 1951.^[7]

He retired in 1970.

References

^ "Policejni prihlasky". digi.nacr.cz. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
^ "Věra Pauknerová | Databáze obětí | Holocaust". www.holocaust.cz. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
^ "Růžena Langsteinová | Databáze obětí | Holocaust". www.holocaust.cz. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
^ "Izidor Langstein | Databáze obětí | Holocaust". www.holocaust.cz. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
^ Forst, Vladimír, ed. (1993). "Jiří Hronek". Lexikon české literatury (in Czech). Vol. 2/1. Prague: Academia. pp. 328–329. OCLC 613112381.
^ Ševčíková, Markéta; Nordenstreng, Kaarle (2017-09-27). "The Story of Journalist Organizations in Czechoslovakia". Media and Communication. 5 (3): 100. doi:10.17645/mac.v5i3.1042. ISSN 2183-2439.
^ General, Jiri Meisner, IOJ Secretary (15 July 1966). Democratic Journalist: 20 years of the IOJ 1946-1966. International Organization of Journalists. p. 81.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)