We’ve had better luck than others
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Peter Briess was born on 12 September 1931 in Olomouc into a respectable Jewish family of merchants. His great-grandfather Ignác Briess junior founded a pulse, seed and malt shop in Olomouc in 1870, which was later run by his grandfather Theodor Briess and Peter’s father Hans Briess, a successful food merchant. From 1935 the family lived in the functionalist villa Na Vozovce 12, designed by Jacques Groag. The peaceful life ended on 15 March 1939, when seven-year-old Peter saw German soldiers marching from the window. Hans and Theodor Briess were arrested and the Nazis announced the confiscation of their property. Hans Briess, however, showed extraordinary fortitude: when the Gestapo demanded that the commander be accommodated in their house, he made it a condition for permission to move out. This step saved his life, that of his wife Elsa Briess, and that of his children Peter and Hana. The family fled on 30 June 1939 via Germany to Holland and then to England, arriving there on 2 July 1939. Peter attended schools in Sussex and Harpenden and adapted quickly. He served in the British RAF from 1949-1951. He then studied chemistry at the University of Geneva, graduating in 1954. On his return to London, Peter Briess worked in the pharmaceutical industry, later in the food supplement business and, from the 1970s, in the pharmaceutical equipment business. Together with his son, he later became involved in real estate. The fate of the relatives who remained in Czechoslovakia was tragic: many members of the extended family perished in Terezín, Auschwitz or during mass executions in Belarus. After 1989, Peter and his sister Hana Briess successfully restituted their family home in Olomouc and, after extensive reconstruction, returned it to its original beauty. In 2026 Peter Briess was living in London.
