It is with a great sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Tomáš Kosta. May his soul be bound up in the bond of life.
Professor Kosta was born in Prague, during WWII he survived Terezín, Auschwitz and Buchenwald; two times he managed to flee a march of death. His enchantment with communism quickly evaporated as soon as his parents were imprisoned as part of the political processes of the 50’s. At that time Kosta worked as a chef and antiquarian. Since 1953 he worked in publishing, in 1968 he became editor in chief of the then political publishing house Svoboda. In August he emigrated, first to Switzerland and later to Germany where he made a career as a publisher and became an influential player on a German political scene; he engaged in the name of German Social Democrats. Since 1990 he partly lived in Prague and partly in Frankfurt. In the Czech Republic he published Zemske Noviny paper and Slovo paper. He worked for Czech prime ministers as an advisor for German speaking countries; he later worked as an advisor for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Schwarzenberg. He was a member of Czech PEN Club. In 2002, he was awarded by President Havel the Medal of Merit – Second Grade. In 2009, he was one of the key participants of the Conference on the Destiny of Holocaust Victims´ Assets. From 2010-2013 he was a member of the FHV Supervisory Board
