Tom Schrecker

* 1932

  • Why did I choose Australia? It was a big country but not big enough that everything would already be build. It was far. It was a sporty country and I was very much into sport. People were friendly and not so hard working but you could have worked hard if you wanted. They were not envious as people sometimes say about the Czechs. So I chose Australia.”

  • “I was used to travelling. I started travelling when I was four years old and I’ve been travelling practically my whole life. People ask me where do I feel at home and I say I feel at home at the place where I’m staying for the night. I feel good anywhere but I don’t have any roots.”

  • “It was a noble family from Scotland. The lady who raised was not married but she adopted and raised three other children. It was a great and remarkable woman. I was there for eleven schools (years) and then I went to Germany as an officer of the British army. I studied history at Oxford and later worked in the publishers. Then I started my own publishing business.”

  • “He is 103 years old now. I went to visit him when he was 101. I took a train to Maidenhead and then a taxi to his house and invited him for a lunch. I told him there was a taxi waiting for me. He said: ‘No, we’ll go by my car.’ ‘You still have a driving licence?’ I asked. ‘Yes, they gave me a new extension for four years.’ He was a good driver. He drove a bit too fast, but good. I think he lost the driving licence a year ago. But at the age of 101 he was still a good driver.”

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    Třeboň, 27.07.2012

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    duration: 01:50:17
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I don’t have any roots

Tom Schrecker
Tom Schrecker
photo: Pamět Národa - Archiv

Tom Schrecker was born in 1932 in Prague as the only child into a family of a textile merchant. His parents got soon divorced. As a child, he lived for a few years in Italy. In June 1939 he was sent to Great Britain with the fifth transport organized by Nicholas Winton. He was raised in a Catholic family in England and Scotland. After the war he stayed in Britain and got a degree in history at the Oxford University. He worked as an agent for the Reader’s Digest publishing house and his responsibility was to open new stores. Later he launched his own publishers. He lives in Australia since the 1960s. He sold his publishing house and other companies in the 1990s and retired in 1992. He goes to Europe every summer and each time visits also the Czech Republic.