Olga Fierz

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Olga Fierz (1900–1990) was a Swiss teacher and translator who spent most of her life helping children in need. She worked with Přemysl Pitter, and together they created a lasting program for vulnerable youngsters in Prague.

In 1933 they opened Milíč-House, a flexible home for children with playrooms, a library, gym, workshop, and staff to help with homework. The place also offered holidays, meals, medical care, and education. Over time, it grew into a full-range welfare center.

When World War II began, Milíč-House drew suspicion because it sheltered Jewish children. Fierz still found ways to get food and essentials to the Jewish children hiding in Prague and to other orphans in need. After the war, Pitter and Fierz expanded their work, turning four abandoned country houses south of Prague into temporary homes for orphans. They cared for Jewish children and also for German children who had suffered through the war and ethnic cleansing.

In December 1950, Czechoslovakia’s new one‑party government refused Fierz re‑entry after she visited Switzerland for a funeral. Pitter was expelled the next year. With their work blocked at home, they moved their efforts to refugee camps in Germany, especially near Nuremberg. From 1952 to 1962 they helped thousands of children in camps run for refugees from Eastern Europe, under the World Council of Churches. Fierz helped families with language, wrote asylum letters, and supported education and welfare in difficult conditions. Pitter preached and guided the social work; together they focused on the well‑being and dignity of the children.

After 1962 they settled near Zurich, in Affoltern am Albis. They continued to support exiled Czechs and Slovaks and to publish and share their ideas. Pitter died in 1976, and Fierz kept their work and memory alive, including compiling his sermons and writing about their shared projects.

Olga Fierz received several honors during her life. In 1966 she was named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for helping Jewish people during the war. A tree was planted in her name in Jerusalem in 1985. After her death, an asteroid was also named in her honor.

Early in life, Fierz was born in Baden, Switzerland, into a Protestant family. After her father’s business failed, the family moved to Brussels, where she earned a teaching qualification. She studied in Geneva, where Jean Piaget was a rising figure in psychology. She then spent five years in England as a French teacher at a girls’ boarding school, where she learned Montessori-inspired approaches and began to see how education could help children from less privileged backgrounds. Her experiences in international peace work and her love of children shaped a lifelong dedication to helping vulnerable youngsters, first in Prague and later in refugee camps in Germany.