Holocaust survivor Dita Kraus dies at 96

Dita Kraus, one of the last surviving witnesses of the Holocaust, died shortly after midnight in Jerusalem at the age of 96, Seznam Zprávy reported.

Born Edith Polachová in Prague in 1929 to a Jewish family, Kraus was imprisoned in Terezín, Auschwitz, Hamburg, and Bergen-Belsen. Her autobiography A Delayed Life inspired the acclaimed novel The Librarian of Auschwitz by Spanish author Antonio Iturbe.

In 1947, she married writer and teacher Ota B. Kraus, whom she had met in the camps. Two years later, the couple emigrated to Israel, where they both worked as teachers and raised three children.

After her husband’s death in 2000, Kraus lived in Netanya but frequently visited Prague. This January, she took part in a memorial event marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.