The remarkable story of anti-fascist Sudeten German Alois Ullmann and his family’s journey
Alois Ullmann was a key figure in the Sudeten German social democratic movement. He fled to Great Britain during the Nazi regime but later returned to Prague. After being imprisoned in concentration camps, he worked to rebuild his party, Seliger Gemeinde, but was thwarted by the expulsion of Sudeten Germans. He later organized the resettlement of Sudeten German anti-fascists, known as "Aktion Ullmann."
As the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War approaches, his grandchildren, Sally Bywater and Chris Ullmann, reflect on his legacy, with the help of historian Thomas Oellermann who sets the stage for this painful period of history.
Thomas Oellermann: “When we talk about Czechoslovakia and the Czechoslovak Republic during the interwar period, we are talking about a state with significant minorities, the largest of which was the German minority, known as the Sudeten Germans. Of the 15 million people in Czechoslovakia, three and a half million were German-speaking, so they were Germans, let’s say.
“Within this large minority, there were several different political parties, and one of the biggest and most important was the German Social Democratic Workers' Party. Founded in 1919, this party supported the Czechoslovak Republic and democracy, fighting for democracy until 1938, when Hitler and the Sudeten German Party, led by Konrad Heinlein, began destroying the first Czechoslovak Republic.
“At that time, a small minority of about 10% of the German-speaking population in Czechoslovakia remained pro-democratic, while the other 90% supported Konrad Heinlein and the Sudeten German Party, and by extension, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party from the German Reich.
“Therefore, the members of the German Social Democracy in Czechoslovakia were quite brave people, as they faced strong pressure to resign. But they continued to fight for democracy and remained resilient. Some managed to emigrate to secure countries such as Sweden, Great Britain, and Canada, while the majority were deported by the Nazis to concentration camps. Some, like Alois Ullmann, survived past 1945, but for most, their lives ended tragically. Many were murdered by the Nazis during the brutal years of the Second World War.
“And Alois Ullmann was neither a member of Parliament nor the Senate but he was really important to German social democracy in Czechoslovakia. He was one of the main figures in the German Social Democratic Workers' Movement and the Workers' Sports Movement. The Workers' Sports Movement was a significant mass organization for the party, and Ullmann was responsible for organizing many large events. His importance made him a target for the Nazis, who eventually captured him and sent him to a concentration camp.”
Before we get to the rest of the timeline could you introduce yourselves as well here?
Sally Bywater: “Well, I'm his eldest — Alois Ullmann's eldest grandchild from the UK. I'm Sally... I was Sally Ullmann, but now I'm Sally Bywater.”
Chris Ullmann: “I'm Chris Ullmann, and I'm the fourth grandchild from the UK.”
Sally: “He had five grandchildren altogether from the UK — at least, that he knew of.”
And we'll get into some of the background and personal history and your understanding of this growing up and the processing of this history as well. But let’s touch on this timeline. Can we address a little bit more of the history of Alois Ullmann as a person? So 1938 is an important year and what about 1945 and liberation?
Sally: “They evacuated him along with his wife and his youngest son, who was only 12 at the time. I mean, my personal theory — and Chris agrees — is that he never intended to stay in the UK. What he was doing was getting his wife and youngest child as safe as he could. But then he went straight back to Prague in 1939.”
Alone at that time? Without his wife, Emma?
Sally: “He left Emma and he left my father — his youngest son, our father — in the UK. So he went back alone. He had three older children — adult children — who were all still in Prague. All three of them were married and had children.
“We also believe he went back to join the resistance, and we’ve been told — quite definitively from everyone’s accounts — that there was also a woman he went back for.
“So there are three reasons we think he returned: his children and grandchildren, the resistance, and this woman.
“But I just don’t think he could have not been involved with the resistance. That was so important to him — to help, to be loyal to Czechoslovakia, and to do what he could.”
And is there any official record of some of that reasoning? Are you working off of eyewitness accounts?
Sally: “We’re working off of what our mother was told, and the things you were told [points at Chris] by our father. We definitely know there was a woman — that much is clear. And we know he had his older, adult children still in Prague.
“So, I don’t know, maybe that’s just me thinking as a mother — you do what you can to get your youngest child to safety, and then you go back because of the others.
“And looking at his earlier history, he was always so actively involved, so enthusiastic and passionate about everything. There’s just no way he would have sat on the sidelines.
“So no — we don’t have proof, but this is what we’ve pieced together.”
Chris: “There was actually an indication in the records — we had some records opened — and in those, we saw that in his application in the UK, it stated that he intended either to settle in Scotland or possibly go on to Canada. So it was never meant to be his final destination. We assume it was meant to be temporary — that he left our father and our grandmother behind in the UK while he went back.”
And my understanding is that Emma's English was poor for the duration of her life. So, what were some of the reasons she didn’t try to improve her English?
Sally: “Some of the reasons... I don’t think she was ever really happy in the UK. I think she stayed because her youngest son was there. She could have gone to Germany to join her two daughters, but she chose not to — and we feel that’s another sign there was an estrangement because she never went back to be with Alois.
“She stayed in the UK because her son was still very young. She was given an unlimited domestic permit, so she was able to earn a living as a housekeeper. She moved from job to job — it wasn’t easy. There were racist slogans daubed on her house.
“I only met her when she eventually rented a room with the Mykura family — another family who had been evacuated at the same time. I used to go and see her there. I think I’m the only one of us who really spent time with her, though maybe one of my brothers did too — it’s complicated, with our father and everything.”
A lot of moving parts.
[Laughter]
Sally: “Yeah… out of the first family, we all met our grandmother. But she had died by the time you two were born.”
Chris: “Yes, she died two years before I was born.”
Sally: “In the final years of her life, my father was able to buy a bungalow for her. When the Micar family passed away, she was able to move out of the rented room and live with him. They were together for her final years, and she died a few years later — in her 80s. And she did go to Germany, and in the last years of her life, she took German nationality. But she didn’t want her eldest daughter to come to England because she thought England was too damp and too cold. I have a letter from my father where she says that — she didn’t think it would be right for them to come.”
Let's turn back to 1939. How much do we know about him being captured and then being sent to a concentration camp until the liberation in 1945?
Sally: “Well, again, the family story — and this comes from my mother — is that one day he was out on the streets. He had been in hiding, but he was seen and picked up by the Gestapo. He was interrogated for several months, and then, before the war was officially declared, he was sent to Dachau, where he remained until 1945 when they were liberated.
“But there are information boards at Dachau with his picture on them, and there are records of him there. And apparently, he acted as a male nurse, even though he had no nursing background.”
Chris: “I believe that was quite common; some of the internees were given jobs like that.”
Would the Nazis have known his political views at this time?
Sally: “Yes, he was a political prisoner, which is why he was sent to Dachau. He wasn’t just a member of the DSAP (German Social Democratic Workers’ Party); he was also a member of the Republikanische Wehr. I don’t know if I’ve pronounced that right, but it’s the Republican defense, a paramilitary organization loyal to Czechoslovakia.”
Did he ever talk about being mistreated while he was there? Did he ever mention his work as a nurse?
Sally: “Well, I didn’t meet him. I was born in 1953, and we went to Germany around the time of his death, but he passed away in 1957. I was too young to have any real memory of him. I might have met him, but I don’t remember actually meeting him. I don’t know if he was mistreated — our father didn’t say he was, and there’s nothing specific we’ve heard about that.”
No stories about that time period?
Sally: “No, our father didn’t speak much about it at all. It was almost as if he would remember something, tell us a little, and then stop. It seemed too sensitive for him to talk about.”
There's a lot of things in Czech, or Czechoslovak history, let's say, that aren't discussed from collaboration with the Nazis to these revisionist historical tales, and more. And Sudeten Germans were particularly portrayed as a scapegoat and as an evil in the post-war period [without exception]. And so how much in the post-war period was Mr. Ullmann struggling with this along with his friends, family, and colleagues?
Sally: “Well, he was a witness to the Ústí massacre. I mean, I’ve been told — and now you’ve mentioned it too — that the German speakers had to wear a white band. Chris told me this, and he said that my father took it off. He just said, ‘I’m not wearing that,’ and put it in his pocket. That seems just typical of the man.”
Chris: “Yes.”
Sally: “As a result, I suspect that’s part of why he was so involved — because he was an eyewitness to that. Afterward, he moved to Germany, but so did his two brothers, his two adult daughters, and their families. I think they moved before the general relocation of everyone else, and I think that was deliberate. He was getting his family out at that point. He knew they weren’t going to be safe. He was pragmatic, though. He did what had to be done to get them to safety.”
And where in Germany did they move?
Sally: “Munich. Well, Dachau, actually [Dachau is on the outskirts of Munich]. He lived in the officers' quarters there. I went to Dachau last year, and I realized that after the war, Dachau was flattened, and they put refugees in what used to be the prisoners' barracks. I think that’s where our aunts must have gone initially when they first moved.”
Thomas: “Alois Ullmann was really, really important in the post-war period because he returned to Czechoslovakia. I would say he was the highest representative of the DSAP. All the others were either murdered or in exile, in places like Great Britain or Canada. He might have been the highest-ranking member of the former party still alive and back in Prague.
“That’s why he tried to re-found the party, for example. He thought, maybe we can continue our political work. He wanted to create a political party again. But he soon realized it was impossible because the Czechoslovak government had already decided to expel most Germans to Western Germany. That’s when he changed his strategy.
“He then helped organize the resettlement of Sudeten German antifascists to Bavaria, to Western Germany. This was called the Ullmann-Aktion, and it’s a very well-known term from that time. These were the Sudeten German antifascists who were treated better than the ‘normal’ Sudeten Germans. This was the Ullmann-Aktion, and it continued in Munich after the war, as all these people arrived in the completely destroyed Western Germany.
“They tried to rebuild the structures of Sudeten German social democracy, and Alois Ullmann was deeply involved in that. In 1951, he was one of the founders of an organization called the Seliger Gemeinde, which was the successor organization to the former DSAP. So, he was a very important person in all of this.”
Sally: “And what I find interesting about that is that one of the aims of the Seliger Gemeinde was to foster good relations between the Germans and the Czechs.”
Thomas: “Look, during the Cold War, the relations between Western Germany and Czechoslovakia were really difficult. One of the most contentious issues was, of course, the Sudeten German question — the history of the Sudeten Germans and everything surrounding that.
“These former Sudeten German social democrats, who were now mostly organized within the West German SPD and the Seliger Gemeinde, had a different kind of politics. They were more open to talking with Czechoslovakia and trying to find ways to communicate — discussing reforms and trying to establish better relations between the two countries. This was also part of the politics of Alois Ullmann in those early years.”
One more political question before we can get to some more personal questions. But in the newer party, starting with a tough German word you mentioned [points at Thomas].
Thomas: “Seliger Gemeinde.”
Yes, so how involved was he politically there? Because you were saying that before he was one of the heads [of the party].
Thomas: “He was returning from the concentration camp, coming to Ústí-nad-Labem, and then to Prague. In Prague, they opened an office in the People’s House of the Czech Social Democracy. This wasn’t the same People’s House as today, but it was located on Na příkopě. They opened the office to help organize things. The first goal was to somehow revive the old party, but later on, they focused on organizing the resettlement of Sudeten German antifascists.
“They sent the first people to Munich because they knew that eventually, everyone would be going to Bavaria and Munich. So, they sent some, let’s say, pioneers to see what is possible— where they could find housing, and so on. This entire operation was called the Ullmann-Aktion. Alois Ullmann was the one organizing it.”
This was also in May 1945?
Thomas: “Yes, it started in May 1945, but it continued into June and October, lasting until the next year. The resettlement of the Sudeten German antifascists officially began in 1946. But they were already sending people to Munich, just to see what was possible and where they could resettle all these people.
“This was the so-called Ullmann-Aktion. Out of this, the Seliger Gemeinde — the Seliger Community — was later founded, which still exists today. Tomorrow, we’re going to an event for the Seliger Gemeinde. This was the beginning of this new political organization, so the party evolved into an organization.”
When did you start being interested in this background yourselves? Maybe Chris, you could start.
Chris: “Well, when I first realized that I wasn’t purely English, and that my father came from somewhere else, it was interesting. It was very complex to grasp, too, because I was being told, ‘Yes, my father came from Czechoslovakia,’ but he was actually German. He spoke German. He didn’t really speak Czech. He didn’t remember any Czech words, even though he must have spoken Czech at one time. It was something I was proud of, definitely. It was something I wanted to know more about.”
“And it's always been something that I’ve been interested in — Czech history, German history, and European politics in general, as a result. And it’s also influenced the way I look at the world, even though I didn’t consciously know it. That’s how I found things out, like talking to Sally on the train about our grandfather, Alois’s outlook. For example, the idea that everyone should be involved, regardless of their political beliefs or whatever.
“I run a similar kind of environmental group now, and the idea is that everyone is involved. It’s not just a ‘green’ or ‘left-wing’ thing. Everyone has a role to play. And I was delighted to find out that this outlook has sort of echoed down the years, even though I didn’t know it at the time.”
Backgrounds really shape our understanding of nationality. And so having a personal background seems to be influencing also a nuanced position of history where a lot of people in the post-war period are reinterpreting things that happened during the war. And by 2025, we have solidified one kind of interpretation of the post-war period. So how much would that have shaped your understanding as well that you're probably reading history that is from a Czechoslovak or Czech perspective and then reading history from various other perspectives? So is that something you were registering?
Chris: “Yes, more and more. It’s that kind of unique perspective we have — small, but unique. It doesn't really match any of the other perspectives. There are the Sudeten antifascists, the Sudeten Germans who were pro-German, and then there’s the diaspora we’re part of — those who went to England, Canada, and stayed connected to each other. We still maintain those connections, though now it’s mostly between the grandchildren. We have this slightly different view — from the outside in, detached, but not in a negative sense. It’s just because we’re further away.
“It brings in the English viewpoint, which can be quite difficult because English history tends to be very black and white, and not nuanced at all. So, seeing things from an outside perspective, informed by various things, makes us quite unique in what we can offer. And I think that’s important. Alois was born in 1888, and I’m his grandchild, born in 1970. That’s almost a century between us, and I’m very conscious of that. The stories we tell are significant. My wife, who’s a former archaeologist, always says that it’s not just about the things you discover in history, but also the stories that get handed down. Those stories are just as important, and they shape how we see events today.”
And now, it’s the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Looking back, one takeaway is that even nations, or nationalities, that were once at complete odds, like Poland and Ukraine or Germany and Czechoslovakia, can sit down today and talk about the tragic parts of history, discussing them in ways that are optimistic or nuanced. Is that something that you ever struggled with in your life growing up? How much of that was a struggle for you?
Sally: “For me, it was different because I was born in the 50s. My father very much hid the fact that he was a German speaker. I wasn’t aware of it myself. My sister remembers him speaking German, translating for my grandmother, but I didn’t know. I knew he wasn’t originally English, but it was a puzzle to me.
“My father left our family when I was eight, so there was a huge gap. I think UK politics played a role in this. Although I myself am British, I consider myself as European. There were certain events in Britain, like the Brexit referendum, that made me realize just how much of a gap I had in understanding this side of my heritage. It was the start of it for me. By that time, we’d made contact, hadn't we [points to Chris]? We didn’t meet until we were in our 20s, so there were several tragedies within the family. But now, it’s about communication. The two sides of the family are talking to each other. Next week, we’re meeting some of the other descendants of the family here in Czechia. It’s making contact.
“I wasn’t particularly aware of Sudeten German history until I started researching it. It's not something that's taught in England. We have a different perspective. We were taught that the Brits won the war, but it wasn’t as simple as that.”
Chris: “And Neville Chamberlain too, like the Munich Agreement — that's how we’ve been taught. But I had a slightly different perspective, being born in the 70s. Our father brought German into the home and did teach me German. I didn’t fully follow through on it, but I do have some German and can get around. It became quite important to me, and I wanted to pursue it further. But in school, the opportunities to study it were limited. They weren’t impossible, but limited. I would’ve had to give up other things to do it.”
Sally: “They’re even more limited now, I think.”
Chris: “Yeah, exactly. But it was also about talking to our father about his post-war experience, which wasn’t a pleasant one. He was in British intelligence and likely interviewed some pretty unpleasant people.”
Sally: “I saw part of it. He had to interview suspected war criminals in civil internment camps. He was only 20 or 21. His role was to translate. I know this from letters he wrote to my mother, where he described some graphic details about what these people had told him. In one letter, he simply wrote, ‘We’re just animals.’ I think he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and I don’t think he ever really recovered from it.”
Chris: “We also have to acknowledge something we haven’t talked about: our father, much like when he was abandoned in England, felt abandoned by his father too. While he was appreciative of his father’s political actions, he was unforgiving on a personal level. He didn’t paint his father in a flattering light for us. It’s an interesting history to uncover — someone who did a lot of important things, yet had such a complex personal history.”
Sally: “It was hidden, yes. It’s been an incredible journey to find out exactly what he did. And it’s become important to me, and to you too, I think, because I want my children and grandchildren to know about it. My daughter came with us last year. Your son wanted to come this year, but couldn't. What we want to do is make sure the family knows this history because it’s something we’re proud of. And we should be proud of. He might not have been a perfect man or husband, but he did some pretty amazing things and was very brave and resilient.”
Chris: “I think there’s a thread that runs through all of us, the grandchildren, and even the great-grandchildren. We’ve carried this Social Democrat politics, not even knowing it at first. But not all of the family shares this perspective. But I think it must have something to do with seeing things through our father’s eyes. It definitely shaped us.”
You were briefly touching on that legacy. So, when you have presentations on this story, what is the takeaway of the audiences?
Sally: “I believe that ordinary people can make a big difference. It’s important to understand that just because we’re small or feel like we can’t do much, we still have to keep trying. That’s what I want my children and grandchildren to understand as they grow up. Because that’s what he did — whatever situation he was in, he did his best.
“He wanted the community, especially the ordinary worker, to benefit from sport. That was his passion. He believed it would improve their physical and mental health. When that was taken away from him, he asked, ‘What can I do now?’ And he decided to help organize the movement to get as many people to safety as possible.
“You may not change the course of history, but what he did was change the course of history for a lot of individuals. That’s the legacy for me — that’s the takeaway.”
Chris: “Yeah, I totally agree. Every action matters, even when it’s on an individual level. For example, with something like climate change, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But I think you have to hold onto the belief that others feel the same way. It’s about continuing to push forward in what you believe.
“When I look at the political situation in America, with diversity, equality, and inclusion being taken away, it makes me angry. But you have to keep fighting for what you believe in because these values are crucial. They’re not something that can be taken away.
Sally: “And it’s also about starting from the bottom up — not waiting for the top to do something.”
Timeline of Allois Ullmann’s life
- October 1938: Evacuated from Prague to UK, one of the first to be evacuated, followed by wife and younger son in December
- In 1939 he returned to Prague
- 1945: Liberated by the Americans, he returned to Aussig
- Hid white band that German speakers were required to wear in his pocket – eye-witness of Usti massacre
- 1946: Moved daughters and families to Munich and settled in officers’ quarters at Dachau
- 1947: ‘Aktion Alois Ullmann’
- 1951: Founder member of Seliger Gemeinde
- Publishing director of Die Brücke
- 1957: Died in Munich of bowel cancer
