KULKA, ERICH

KULKA, ERICH (originally Schön; 1922–1995), Czech author, publicist, and historian. Born in Vsetín, Moravia, Kulka spent 1939–1945 in concentration camps; from 1942 he was in Auschwitz. He escaped in January 1945 with his son Otto. In 1968 he immigrated to Israel, where he worked at the Institute of Contemporary History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In his writing, Kulka drew on events from World War II and the Holocaust. He published many articles, studies, and books on these themes in Czechoslovakia, Israel, and many other countries. His works include Továrna na smrt (1946, "The Death Factory") with Otto Kraus; Noc a mlha ("Night and Mist," 1958) with Otto Kraus; Frankfurtský proces ("The Frankfurt Trial," 1964); Útěk z tábora smrti ("Escape from a Death Camp," 1966); Soudcové, žalobci a obhájci ("Judges, Prosecutors, Defenders," 1966); Židé ve Svobodově armádě ("Jews in the Czechoslovak Svoboda Army," 1979, 1990); Židé v československém vojsku na Západě ("Jews in the Czechoslovak Western Army," 1992). Of his three sons, Otto Dov Kulka is an Israeli historian; Dan Kulka is an Israeli sculptor; Tomáš Kulka is an Israeli-Czech philosopher and esthetician living in Prague. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Slovník českých spisovatelů (1982). (Milos Pojar (2nd ed.)