| Vera Laska Bio* |
 |
 |
 |
|
After the war, Vera worked full-time as executive secretary for the Czechoslovak War Crimes Investigation Commission while also attending Charles University in Prague, focusing on philosophy and history. Then, on the recommendation of two of her professors, she was sent to the United States in 1946 on a fellowship given by the Institute of International Education. She studied at the University of Chicago, earning her doctorate in American history in 1959. There she served as a foreign students counselor and also met her future husband: Andrew ("Andy") J. Laska. The two became parents of two sons: Tom, who later was killed in an automobile accident on the way to attend graduate school; and Paul, whom they adopted after Tom’s death. The Laskas lived in Cuba, Brazil, and Chicago before settling in New England, where in 1966 Vera joined the faculty at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts; there she taught American and diplomatic history and earned the love of a generation of students. From the time she settled in Massachusetts, Vera was active in helping refugees from Communist Czechoslovakia. When the regime was toppled and replaced by a democratic system, she returned for a semester in 1993 to her beloved Charles University as a Fulbright professor of American history. She was accompanied by her husband, who served as a director of Citizens Democracy Corps. Over the course of her adult life, Vera was an honored historian, educator, and author of numerous publications, including “Women in the Resistance and in the Holocaust: The Voices of Eyewitnesses” and several books about American patriots. She was married to Andy for 52 years, until his death on May 23, 2001 after a short illness. On December 11, 2005, Vera lost her battle with lung cancer. She was 82-years-old.
Image left: Vera Laska circa 1946. Photo was taken in Prague, after Vera was free. Her hair is about one year old in the photo. (Screen grab from the interview of Vera Laska is from the archive of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. For more information: www.college.usc.edu/vhi.) Image right: Photo of Vera and Andy Laska, circa 1996. (Screen grab from the interview of Vera Laska is from the archive of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. For more information: www.college.usc.edu/vhi Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites 
       |
As a teenager, Vera (Oravec) Laska defied statistics and lasted three years as a Czechoslovak Resistance fighter (instead of the average six months); survived Auschwitz and two other camps as a political prisoner; and escaped the Nazis during a death march.
