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Oral history interview with Karel Vašiček

Oral History

Karel Vašiček, born in 1932 in Lipa in Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes the prewar Jewish community of Lipa; a concentration camp outside of Lipa and the transports that brought Jews to the camp; conditions in the camp, including the forced labor of Jews; his parents' work at the camp site; the relocation of a selection of Jews from the camp by a German SS officer; and how Jews from the camp were used to help put out a fire in the village.

Oral history interview with Jirí Reynek

Oral History

Jirí Reynek, born in 1929 in Grenoble, France, describes his family moving to Petrkov, Czechoslovakia in 1936; the local prewar Jewish community; friendly relations between his family and the Jewish community; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; Jewish families who left their furniture and belongings with his family; the deportation of local Jews to the concentration camp in Terezin in 1942; sending parcels to Jewish friends in Terezin; the confiscation of his family farm by German forces in 1943; Jews in the Lipa concentration camp working at his family farm; his family not leaving their farm until 1944; the sight of a group of Jews being led to work by an SS guard; his family staying in Stara Rise until the end of the war; and the antisemitic remarks of a neighbor.

Oral history interview with Daniel Reynek

Oral History

Daniel Reynek, born in 1928 in Grenoble, France, describes his family moving to Petrkov, Czechoslovakia in 1936; how his family aided their Jewish friends; the Jewish friends' deportation to Terezin; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; a transport of a group of Jews to a concentration camp in 1940; the sight of Jews working in a field in the Lipa concentration camp; his family leaving their farm in 1944; and antisemitic propaganda that circulated througout the village.

Oral history interview with Susana Urbanová

Oral History

Susana Urbanová, born in 1933 in Trebic, Czechoslovakia, describes her Jewish father; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community; having to wear a Star of David badge and being prevented from attending school; the establishment of a Jewish ghetto; her mother's decision not to divorce her father; her father losing his job; the registration of the Jewish community in 1939; deportations of the Jewish community in 1942; Gestapo members destroying items in her family's apartment; her father's arrest in 1943 and his death in Auschwitz; the liquidation of Jewish owned belongings and sale of Jewish owned homes; and the return of some Jews to the area after the war.

Oral history interview with Vojtěch Peřina

Oral History

Vojtěch Peřina, born in 1928 in Tabor, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Tabor; positive relations between Jews and non-Jews; his Jewish uncle; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community beginning in 1941; the decision for his aunt and Jewish uncle to formally divorce to protect his aunt; the relocation of his uncle to a designated house and his forced labor; bringing food to his uncle and other imprisoned Jews; the deportation of the Jews to Terezin in 1942; his uncle's death; his aunt's death by suicide; executions of Czech intelligentsia by Schutzpolizei; and the return of some Jews to Tabor after the war.

Oral history interview with Bohumil Vrátil

Oral History

Bohumil Vrátil, born in 1926 in Trest in Czechoslovakia, describes his family and the prewar Jewish community of Trest; attending a gymnasium in Telc and witnessing German forces entering the town; the closing of high schools in 1940; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; the arrest of Czech priests, teachers, and those accused of communism; the imprisonment of Jews from the surrounding towns in a house; the deportation of local Jews to Terezin; and the return of one Jewish man after the war.

Oral history interview with Zdena Volfová

Oral History

Zdena Volfová, born in 1924 in Brno in Czechoslovakia, describes moving to Trest in 1930; the prewar Jewish community of Trest; her training and work as a hairdresser in Jihlava; the treatment of the Jewish community under German occupation; her Jewish clients; the deportation of the local Jewish community; townspeople who collaborated with German soldiers; her deportation to Germany to work in 1943; executions of Czech civilians in 1945 by German soldiers, aided by local collaborators; and the execution of local collaborators after the war.

Oral history interview with Jarmila Špírková

Oral History

Jarmila Špírková, born in 1929 in Jihlava, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Jihlava and Trest; living in Trest during the war; friendly relations between her family and their Jewish neighbors; her father's work for a Jewish employer; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; the arrest of her father's Jewish employer in 1939 by the Gestapo; Jewish friends giving her family their personal belongings; attending school in Telc and Nove Mesto; her Jewish classmates; deportations of Jews from Jihlava and Trest; the survival of her father's Jewish employer's family; and the postwar execution of local collaborators.

Oral history interview with Jaroslav Samek

Oral History

Jaroslav Samek, born in 1922 in Telc, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Telc; the arrival of German forces in 1939; his work as a translator during the war; restrictions placed upon the Jewish and Czech communities during occupation; the deportation of the Jewish community in 1942, including his German tutor; the confiscation and sale of Jewish owned property and homes by German forces; the arrest of Czech civilians; his father's arrest in 1944 for giving money and food to the families of individuals who had been arrested; and the return of very few Jews after the war.

Oral history interview with Jaroslava Řeháková

Oral History

Jaroslava Řeháková, born in 1929 in Neveklov, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Neveklov; the arrival of German forces in 1939; the arrest of Sokol members; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the German occupation; the deportation of the Jewish community; the appropriation of Jewish owned property; the deportation of Czech civilians in 1944; the sight of Jews escaping from a train in 1945 in Senohrady, including German forces shooting at them; and how one of the escaped Jews hid in her neighbor's house.

Oral history interview with Jaroslav Petr

Oral History

Jaroslav Petr, born in 1923 in Policka, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Policka; the arrival of German forces in 1938; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community under the German occupation; his close relationship with his Jewish neighbors; his neighbors leaving their belongings with his family upon their deportation; his father's arrest for assisting Jewish families; his arrest in 1942 for resistance against the Nazis; his imprisonment in the "Small Fortress" in Terezin; his transfer to a prison in Dresden; his sentencing in 1943 and time in concentration camps in Germany; his sister's death in 1943 as a result of forced labor; and returning home in 1945.

Oral history interview with Kurt Schneider

Oral History

Kurt Schneider, born in 1928 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes his Jewish mother; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the German occupation, including his being prevented from going to school; a roundup of Jews from different districts of Prague; Jews leaving their valuables with their neighbors; the deportation of his mother's family; the deportation of his father to a labor camp at Bystrice in 1944; his deportation to Klettendorf (Klecina), Poland in 1944; his mother's deportation to Terezin in 1945; his escape from the camp in 1945 during an evacuation; and his imprisonment in Hagibor labor camp until liberation in 1945.

Oral history interview with Jindra Kubánková

Oral History

Jindra Kubánková, born in 1923 in Nove Mesto, Czechoslovakia, describes moving to Chomutov; the prewar Jewish community of Chomutov, including her Jewish classmates and friends; leaving Chomutov before the German occupation and relocating to Prague in 1938; attending a German school in 1938 and being treated poorly by the German students there; living with a Jewish family in Prague; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the German occupation; a roundup of Jews, including her Jewish neighbors; a Jewish family leaving their belongings with her father in the basement and how they were destroyed later by a Soviet soldier after he had been detained there due to massive alcohol intoxication; finding her Jewish friend had survived the concentration camps; and being shocked by the transformation of her friend and other Jewish acquaintances due to their time spent in camps.

Oral history interview with Tat'ána Bubníková

Oral History

Taťána Bubníková (née Kalinova'), born in 1931 in Prauge, Czechoslovakia, describes growing up in Buhusovice; her mother's involvement with the local resistance movement; witnessing transports of prisoners to and from Terezin; bringing food to Terezin prisoners; and the illnesses of survivors of Terezin after the war.

Oral history interview with Vlasta Ryáčková

Oral History

Vlasta Ryáčková (née Košvancova'), born in 1930 in Nove Kopisty, Czechoslovakia, describes attending school in Terezin until 1941; the establishment of the Jewish ghetto; witnessing the arrival of a transport of prisoners; the disposal of the corpses of Jews; her father transporting goods illegally into the ghetto; and the arrest of her family after the war and the local Jewish families that helped secure their release.

Oral history interview with Tomaš Šperl

Oral History

Tomaš Šperl, born in 1927 in Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Velhartice; the expropriation of Jewish-owned businesses; the actions of members of the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend); the deportation of the Jewish community in 1942; a Jewish family who gave away their possessions before their deportation; and a local prisoner of war camp.

Oral history interview with Marie Hanzlíková

Oral History

Marie Hanzlíková (née Ruba'šová), born in 1931 in Velhartice, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Velhartice; conditions for the Jewish community under the German occupation, including an attack on a Jewish family by a local townsman; and the deportation of the local Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Jaroslav Bránský

Oral History

Jaroslav Bránský, born in 1928 in Boskovice, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Boskovice; the Jewish ghetto; the deportation of the Jewish community in 1942; the looting of Jewish property and its storage in the local synagogue; and the fates of local Jews after the war.

Oral history interview with Leopold Farber

Oral History

Leopold Farber, born in 1928 in Stara Halič, Czechoslovakia (present day Slovakia), describes being the child of a Jewish father and Catholic mother; living in Boskovice; the conditions for the Jewish community under the German occupation; the roundup and deportation of local Jews, including many of his family members; and the looting of Jewish owned property by German soldiers.

Oral history interview with Ladislav Šín

Oral History

Ladislav Šín, born in 1929 in Konice, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Konice; the arrival of German forces in his hometown; the murder of his uncle by German forces; the treament of Czech children by German children; actions taken by his father and other policemen to protect civilians from local collaborators; being sent to work at the Grygov railway station in 1944; and witnessing a death march in 1945.

Oral history interview with Stanislava Šprincová

Oral History

Stanislava Šprincová (née Kavanouá), born in 1924 in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Olomouc; the burning of the local synagogue; her forced labor; witnessing a transport of Jewish prisoners in 1943; her arrest in 1944 for contacts with prisoners of war; her imprisonment in Lanskroun until 1945; and surviving the bombing of Vienna.

Oral history interview with Editha Kokojanová

Oral History

Editha Kokojanová (née Mayerová), born in 1921 in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, describes growing up half Jewish; the beginning of German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939; the increasingly unsafe conditions for her family; the burning of the local synagogue; her Jewish father separating himself from his family to protect them; her interrogation by the Gestapo in 1941; her father's imprisonment in 1942 in Auschwitz where he perished; the deportation of her brother in 1944; and life for her and her siblings after the war.

Oral history interview with Jaroslav Vyoral

Oral History

Jaroslav Vyoral, born in 1927 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes the local Jewish community of Hranice; conditions under the German occupation; the deportation of the Jewish community in 1942; the looting of Jewish-owned shops by German soldiers; a forced march of Jewish children; and how after the war he met a known collaborator who had managed to avoid persecution and had confiscated a Jewish-owned villa during the war and kept a daughter of the family as a servant.

Oral history interview with Anna Honová

Oral History

Anna Honová (née Krmencíková), born in 1926 in Slavičin, Czechoslovakia, describes lthe prewar Jewish community of Uherský Brod; the burning of the local synagogue in 1941; the conditions for the Jewish community under German occupation; the establishment of the Jewish ghetto; providing assistance to Jewish families to move their possessions for safekeeping; a Jewish man who brought Jewish refugees to Slovakia; the deportation of the Jewish community; and Jews who reclaimed their property after the war.

Oral history interview with Dalibor Dostál

Oral History

Dalibor Dostál, born in 1933 in Kréta (a neighborhood in Terezín, Czech Republic), describes seeing only few Jews with a “yellow star” until 1942; the three Jews living in Terezín before the war; Jews being brought to Terezín before 1942 and forced to live in the former military barracks; being forced with his family to leave the Kreta quarter in 1942 and the Germans, collaborators, and doctors moving in; moving to Hrdly village and living there until the end of the war; attending elementary school in Terezín until 1942; the closing of all the Terezín schools in May 1942; the marching in of Jews from Bohušovice to Terezín in 1942; the guarding of the Jews by SS guard and Czech police; watching Jews marching across the crossroad close to his home; seeing some people giving food to the Jews; not seeing any order nor shouting nor beating; looking into the ghetto with other boys and seeing carts with dead bodies being taken to be buried; the flooding of the Ohře river, exhuming buried bodies; the Germans ordering the building of a crematorium; seeing trains full of Jews being transferred; several houses being built opposite their house in Kréta, where the Jewish ladies were making uniforms; seeing thousands of people marching to and from a factory; watching the train with Reinhard Heydrich’s coffin atop the cannon passing by; his father’s imprisonment during the “Heydrichiade” for listening to the radio and his death in a mining concentration camp in Bernau; the Germans who lived in their house during the war; Jews and prisoners leaving Terezín after the war; and the typhus epidemic.

Oral history interview with Va'clav Kubík

Oral History

Václav Kubík, born 1920 in Nové Kopisty, Czech Republic, describes attending school in Terezín and not having any Jewish schoolmates; doing an apprenticeship in Terezín in 1940; working in a quarry in Libochovany, Czech Republic between 1940 and 1945; the three Jewish families who lived in Terezín before WWII; seeing the arrival of the first group of relocated Jews to Terezín and the restrictions placed on them; his life in Libochovany; witnessing transports of Jews to Terezín from Bohušovice; seeing people being brought by train to Bohušovice and marched to Terezín, escorted by Germans; seeing Terezín Jews building the “Jewish railway” from Bohušovice to Terezín; working in the quarry in Libochovany with prisoners of war from Russia, Poland, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom; being treated them badly by the German supervisors; the threats to and mistreatment of POWs; seeing Jewish women from the Terezín ghetto grazing sheep from Lidice after June 1942; the German laws barring German and Jewish sexual relations; how during the whole month of April 1945, he saw Jews form various concentration camps marching to Terezín; seeing numerous death marches of male prisoners near his house; seeing a death march of female prisoners on the other side of the Elbe river, during which the women carried a dead woman; trying to give food to the marching people along with his neighbors; volunteering with others to help stop the typhus epidemic at the Small Fortress at the end of the war; the arrival of Russian soldiers and their bad behavior; meeting his wife just before the war; his wife’s imprisonment for three months in Terezín fortress and the rest of the war in Ravensbrück concentration camp; his older sister, Marta, who raised him and married Mr. Košvanec; Mr. Košvanec efforts to smuggle food, medicine, and cigarettes into the Terezín ghetto; his wife’s imprisonment in the 1950s after being accused of illegal enrichment for trying to sell gold; Mr. Košvanec’s death soon after the war; being one of the 12 members of the local “Revolutionary Guard” in Nové Kopisty immediately after the war; and witnessing the execution of an SS officer in Litomerice.

Oral history interview with Ilona Hájková

Oral History

Ilona Hájková (née Orenstein), born 1932 in Pardubice, Czech Republic, describes living with her family in Hrochův Týnec, Czech Republic; her father’s Jewish origins; her mother, who was Roman Catholic; moving to Chrudim, Czech Republic in 1938; how her brother, Roman, had Jewish nationality in his birth certificate and her father was able to get the papers changed; her father changing their surname from Orenstein to Orský; her parents’ decision to divorce; a collaborator who kept watch of her father; her brother having to leave gymnasium and work as a mason; her father having to wear the yellow star; her father’s friendship with the Goldschmidt family, who also had to wear yellow stars; her father transferring his clothing business in Hrochův Týnec to his wife and the closing of the store soon after; the antisemitic signs on several businesses in Chrudim and being discriminated against at a candy store; her father’s arrest; receiving several letters from her father and visiting him in prison; her father’s imprisonment in Terezín and Kaufering; her paternal grandparents, Rudolf and Matylda Orenstein, who lived in Zájezdec; going with her mother to help her grandparents pack for their transport and say goodbye; the looting of her grandparents’ home moments before they were taken; liberation and the Russian soldiers who stayed in their house and destroyed a lot of valuable property; and her mother’s marriage to an American and leaving for the United States with Roman.

Oral history interview with Stanislava Brožová

Oral History

Stanislava Brožová (née Vtípilová), born in 1931 in Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia, describes her father, who was a policeman; her father’s service first in Ruthenia, where her brother Jaromír Vtípil was born in 1925, and then in Slovakia; her mother, who was Jewish; being raised Christian (Czechoslovak Hussite Church); being forced to leave Slovakia with her family after the independent Slovak state was established in 1939; going first to Kameničky, Czech Republic; moving in 1940 to Chrudim, Czech Republic, where she spent the rest of the war; her father serving as policeman in Chrudim; attending school while Jaromír went to a business academy; her father divorcing her mother in 1941, so that he could keep his job; her mother not being protected from deportations and working as a servant and knitter; the deportation of her mother on December 5, 1942; the Jews in Chrudim having to wear stars on their clothes and being restricted to a curfew; visiting her mother on daily basis after school before she was deported; going with her mother to visit with her friend Ms. Říhová, who was also Jewish; the arrest and deportation of Ms. Říhová; the forced labor her mother had to do; watching as her mother was deported by train to Terezín; her mother’s death in Auschwitz on January 23, 1943; her brother’s conscription to do forced labor at the railway station in Chotěboř, Czech Republic; her brother’s suicide in 1944 when he was 18 years old; her father remarrying in 1943; how, as a member of the police, her father was responsible for searches in the houses of farmers and peasants, but would tell the people ahead of time so they could hide things; stayed with her father until 1950; converting to Evangelical-Protestant church; and getting married to an Evangelical-Protestant priest.

Oral history interview with Josef Výborný

Oral History

Josef Výborný, born 1925 in Hrbokov, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes moving with his family in 1926 to Heřmanův Městec, Czech Republic, where he spent his entire childhood and the war; going to gymnasium in Chrudim, Czech Republic; large Jewish community in Heřmanův Městec and the relations between Jews and non-Jews; his friends who were Jewish; Jews having to wear yellow stars and being restricted from the cinema and having to follow a curfew; not seeing any signs preventing Jews from entering shops or public buildings; the divorces within mixed-marriages; the resistance activities of local Jews; voluntarily working in the electric manufacture of Vilém (Wilhelm) Nessl; working with boys from mixed origin; witnessing the deportation of the Jews form Heřmanův Městec in April 1942; how the Jews were sent from Přelouč to Pardubice, Czech Republic; seeing the rabbi direct the Jews during the deportation; and people moving into the vacated houses of the Jews after the deportation.

Oral history interview with František Psota

Oral History

František Psota, born 1927 in Topolany, Czechoslovakia (now part of Olomouc, Czech Republic), describes growing up in a multicultural society of Germans, Czechs, and Jews; the numerous mixed families in the Olomouc region; his uncle’s work as a keeper of the synagogue; his Jewish classmates; the lack of tensions between Jews and non-Jews until Hitler’s speech in September 1938 n how the Germans living in Czechoslovakia are being oppressed; seeing the vandalism of a Jewish-run factory in Hamburg, Germany; witnessing the burning of the synagogue on March 15, 1939 and its further destruction over a month’s time; Jews having to wear yellow stars and being restricted from restaurants; the gradual implementation of anti-Jewish measures; the barring of Jews from certain shops; the disappearance of his friend and classmate Neumann as well as other Jewish children from his school; the lack of discussion over the disappearing children; the disappearance of the director of the school Eduard Talafan, who was Jewish; the German Nazis who moved into the apartment that had belonged to Jews; his father having to prove three generations back that he had no Jewish ancestors; only knowing one Jew in Topolany who survived (Henry Zehr); doing forced labor in Germany along with many members of his family; how at the very end of the war there were rumors that Russian Army was approaching Olomouc and people went out to the streets with flags and were killed by Germans; his father’s death on May 8, 1945 during a bombing that destroyed his family’s house; and the partisans in Nová Ulice (now part of Olomouc, Czech Republic) who killed numerous Germans.

Oral history interview with Daruše Burdová

Oral History

Daruše Burdová, born December 31, 1923 in Brno, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes the good relations between Czechs, Germans, and Jews in Brno before the war; living in a house with Czechs, Germans, and Jews after 1930; the numerous Jewish shop and factory owners in Brno; shopping at various Jewish shops in town with her mother; attending a Jewish-German language school; her Jewish classmates (Zuzana Kaufmann, Editha Beck, Silva Jeralová, and Editha Linke); the pro-Nazi political activities of Karl Schwabe from Brno-Modřice; the German occupation; the radicalization of Germans after March 1939; Jews having to wear yellow stars on their clothes; the barring of Jews from the theater, shops, and businesses; the relocation of Jews to apartments and houses that were later in the local concentration camp “Klajdovka”; their neighbors (the Klein family) being forced to leave their apartment; the chief of police in Brno, Karl Schwabe, who moved into the Klein’s home soon after; seeing Jews doing forced labor in Brno; seeing her classmate, Silva Jeralová, with a shaved head and being warned by her not to come any closer otherwise she would be arrested; the deportation of Jews to Terezín (Theresienstadt concentration camp); their Nazi neighbors (the Adamec family); having to learn the song “Horst-Wessel-Lied” in school; the strong pro-Nazi feelings among some Czechs, especially among the Zbrojovka factory workers in Brno-Židenice district; the Germans who opposed Nazi ideology, such as her neighbor, Kristl Wienzek; the Nazis torturing and executing their opponents in the Kounicovy koleje; visiting the Kounicovy koleje with her friend Kamila Nesvedová, whose father was imprisoned and later executed there; seeing six people hanging on gallows in the park around Kaunicovy koleje; visiting her grandfather in Podivín, Czech Republic on holidays; and the Jewish community in Podivín.

Oral history interview with Jan Weiser

Oral History

Jan Weiser, born 1919 in Loštice, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes growing up on the Jewish street in Loštice and knowing all of the 10 to 11 Jewish families in Loštice personal; the relations between Jews and non-Jews in Loštice; how until the 1930s, the Jews were perceived as strongly pro-German by the Czechs; his Jewish friends; his father receiving a loan with no interest from a Jewish friend, Eckstein, in 1928; the families he knew in Loštice and their fates, including Eckstein, Weis, Langer, Kneppelmacher, Klein, Weiser, Ehrlich, Ottakar Lőw, Hirsch, Emil Fischer, Wischnitzer, and Appel; being told that after German occupation, many Jewish men went on forced labor to the village of Kozov, where they were building a road; Jewish women being forced to sweep the streets in Loštice; Jews having to wear yellow stars and follow a curfew; the German military administration warning Czechs against meeting Jews at the town hall; continuing to meet with Jews despite these warnings; how the Czech police behaved ambiguously unless the Germans were watching; a local military administrator named Biener, who moved to Loštice in 1935 and wore a SS uniform after he occupation; the moderate German factory owner, Bruno Hauch, who became mayor in 1939; hearing about Hitler Jugend marches through Mohelnice, Czech Republic; the gradual repressions against Jews, which were announced publicly; local Jews hiding property with trusted neighbors; his father hiding two suitcases of items for his friend Eckstein; being in the army in Vyškov as a pilot between 1937 and 1939; returning home at the end of March 1939 when he was released from the army; doing forced labor in the German aviation factory Letov in Olomouc, Czech Republic in 1941 when the Loštice Jews were deported; Germans taking over the property of the Jews; and the return of the Eckstein family after the war and reclaiming their home.

Oral history interview with Slaviboj Kuchta

Oral History

Slaviboj Kuchta, born June 29, 1923 in the village of Žebrákov, Czechoslovakia (now part of Kovářov, Czech Republic), describes descending from a peasant family and graduating as a doctor in legal science; going to the Czech town of Terezín at the end of the war to help fight the typhus epidemic with the International Red Cross; arriving in the evening at a small fortress in Terezín that had a sign reading “Arbeit macht frei” (a German phrase for "Work sets you free" that appeared at the entrance some Nazi concentration camps); seeing women packed in a courtyard who had sores and lice, and prisoners packed in tiny rooms; the prisoners who were primarily Czech, Hungarian, and Polish; may prisoners having diphtheria, scarlet fever, and typhus; a sanatorium that was set up in Čížkovice for people who were helping in Terezín; and local Czech police raping German girls who were working at the sanatorium.

Oral history interview with Ladislav Naprstek

Oral History

Ladislav Naprstek, born in 1927 in Kamenné Žehrovice, a village in the Central Bohemian Region of Czechoslovakia, describes his father as Aryan and his mother as Jewish; growing up in the small Czech village of Čelechovice (now part of Stochov, Czech Republic); joining the military at the border line and training in the town of Dolný Kubín, Slovakia; his mom having to wear a yellow Jewish star and trying to cover it with a scarf; beginning apprentice training in 1942 at age of 15; going to a concentration camp in Bystřice in Czechoslovakia that had five barracks and was guarded by the SS; someone escaping from the camp and being punished with blows from a cane; secretly exchanging letters with his parents from the camp through a supply deliverer; the military loading him and others on an SS military truck and letting them go in the village of Čerčany shortly before the end of the war; and having a bad stomach and eye problems after leaving the camp.

Oral history interview with Pavel Kohout

Oral History

Pavel Kohout, born in 1928 in the town of Sedlčany, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic), describes his mother as Jewish and working as a chief financial officer for a food and beverage company in Sedlčany, where his father also worked as a production manager; his parents moving to Prague to start a company; his father dying from a stroke at age 49; not being registered as Jewish when he was born, which likely saved his life during the war; going to a synagogue in the Prague neighborhood of Žižkov with his mother once or twice a year; hearing about other children in primary school cursing him for being a Jew in the late 1930s; the Gestapo visiting their home and interrogating his father; his mother having to wear a star then getting arrested and locked up for two months; his school requiring students to state if one of their parents was Jewish, after which he was expelled with two other students; receiving an order to go to Bystřice concentration camp in July 1944 on the same day of an assassination attempt on Hitler; and after the war, witnessing the public execution of Prague mayor Josef Pfitzner, a Nazi supporter.

Oral history interview with Vladimīr Tuček

Oral History

Vladimír Tuček, born September 20, 1927 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes his Jewish mother Anna (born in the small village Bělečko) and his non-Jewish father (born in Prague); his family’s work at the post office; spending holidays in Bělečko; his father’s divorce from his mother in 1939 because she was Jewish and he was trying to protect the family; his mother move to her sister’s house shortly after the divorce; the views on mixed marriages before the war; getting baptized in 1939 when the Germans arrived; his maternal grandmother Matilda Cinerová, who knew how to read Hebrew and taught it to Vladimír; his mother’s two brothers and two sisters Eliška and Berta (both sisters survived the war); attending school; not seeing antisemitic behavior in school before the war; being forced to leave grammar school in 1939 because he was a child from a mixed marriage; the impact of the occupation on his family; having to wear the Jewish star; being denounced many times by a family in Bělečko; the deportation of his mother in 1942 to Theresienstadt and shortly after to Auschwitz, where she died; the deportation of the handicapped sister of his maternal grandmother to a concentration camp, where she died; the deportation of his aunt Eliška in 1944 to Theresienstadt where she caught typhus, but survived; attending a publics school; working in a factory named Blaníček and Malec, which was owned by his mother´s cousins, the Vaníček brothers; working in the factory until 1944, when he was sent to Bystřice to a concentration camp for children from mixed marriages; going by train from Praha-Bubny railroad station to Toršovice, where they stayed for a few days in an abandoned farmhouse; walking to the concentration camp; conditions in the barrack and the men who lived there with him, including Mr. Martinec and the Sýgler brothers; his friendship with the Pelešek brothers, Jára Pospíšil and Kopecký, who took secret photographs of the camp; daily life in the camp; working in a furniture factory; meeting up with his father at one point; staying in contact with his father through notes; witnessing the beatings of people who tried to escape the camp; punishments in the camp; a camp doctor named Sláma; his work at the railway station, unloading boxes of ammunition; his work digging trenches between Benešov and Petrovice; staying in the concentration camp until May 1, 1945; leaving the camp with his friends; working in Neveklov as a driller; witnessing some violence toward the German people after the war; the artists in the camp, including Jára Pospíšil, the dancer Jarský, the pianist Kopecký, the singer Špaček, the trumpeter Victor Tomašu, and the Deuch brothers; a soccer match that occurred in the camp and other recreational activities; and how he was able to cope with being a concentration camp inmate.

Oral history interview with Ludmila Blahoušová

Oral History

Ludmila Blahoušová, born in 1928 in the town of Sušice, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic), describes having a brother and sister and living in Sušice until 1937; her father applying to be a sacristan at a church far away and his family moving to live closer to the church; Jewish families owning textile and clothing shops; boys who were part of the fascist party of Sudeten-German politician Konrad Henlein and wanted to prosecute Jews; Jewish people being restricted to use a laundry house for only one hour in the evening; Jews being assembled in a Jewish community building next to a cemetery; hearing rumors about Jews, such as Jewish people needing blood for Easter celebrations; and her father having more interactions with Jews far more than her generation.

Oral history interview with Karel Blahouš

Oral History

Karel Blahouš, born in 1928 in the town of Sušice, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic), describes having one Jewish classmate in elementary school before the war; neighborhood shops owned by Jewish families; people saying Jews needed Christian blood; Jewish people having to wear stripes on their sleeves; his Jewish classmate disappearing.

Oral history interview with Ružena Höllingerová

Oral History

Ružena Hollingerová, born on February 24, 1924 in Volary, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes attending school for eight years; her mother, who worked for farmers as a helper and cleaned tracks, washed clothes, and cleaned offices and waiting rooms; her father, who was a wood turner; her brother; how during the war her family hid two Jewish girls along with their neighbor, Anna Pek; the demographics of Volary, where most residents were German and others were Czech or Hungarian; the lack of Jews in Volary before the war; the good relations amongst the people of Volary; living with her family in a German community; the changes in life in Volary after the occupation; the spread of typhus in Volary and the death of her four-month-old baby from typhus; the improvements when the Americans arrived; seeing the survivors of the death march to Volary; the burial of the death march victims in the cemetery; a death march survivor, Mrs. Dengler from Poland, who stayed in Volary after she got better; the terrible treatment of the Jewish prisoners by the guards; a woman (Paule) who helped some of the women after they escaped the guards; bringing some of the women food and making a hiding place for them in her attic; how after the Americans arrived the Jewish women were moved to a school, where they were cared for by German women; bringing milk and bread to the women; the Americans forcing everyone in the city to look at the corpses of the death march victims in order to witness what the Germans had done; the men from Volary who were sent to work in Moscow during the war and never returned; and relations with the German citizens in Volary after the war.

Oral history interview with Marie Kotrbáčková

Oral History

Marie Kotrbáčková, born in 1927 in the town of Hořice, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic), describes training to be a shop assistant with a Jewish family; Jews being assembled before being taken to Auschwitz; working as a member of a resistance organization and providing food for Jewish people; how Jewish people could not be in parks and public places or run businesses; all Jews having to leave their homes and move into one villa, then later seeing the Jews being removed from the villa; and German families taking over the Jewish people’s properties.

Oral history interview with Drahomíra Blosgebrová

Oral History

Drahomíra Blosgebrová (née Švarcová), born in 1934 in the small village of Zákřov, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes her parents, Anna and František, and her two brothers, Oto and Vladimír; being 10 years old when German soldiers arrived in their village and set fire to her family’s house; going with her father and one of her two brothers to a neighbor’s house, which was filled with German soldiers; one of the soldiers taking her father; being sent with her brother Oto to live in Lazníky, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) with their aunt; her father and brother (Vladimir) being held captive with 17 other men, who were beaten and taken to a cabin that was set on fire by German soldiers; how the main cause of this incident was the mayor of Zákřov denouncing people he believed were partisans or committed alleged offenses such as listening to the radio; soldiers explaining later that her family’s house had been burned by mistake; being looked after by her aunt; experiencing a lot of fear and having no friends until she was 16 years old; and her brother Oto, who settled in Most, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic).

Oral history interview with Marta Plášilová

Oral History

Marta Plášilová, born December 12, 1930 in Prague-Libeň, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), describes one of the four Jews in her second grade elementary school class, Helga Weis, who survived the concentration camps and later moved to Palestine where she became a painter; the strong Jewish community in Libeň; her family’s friendship with Jewish families, in particular “Uncle” Frýba and his two children; how life changed after the German occupation; Jewish children being barred from attending schools in 1943; her father’s efforts along with Uncle Frýba to help Jewish families escape and hide their valuables; the deportation of Jews; the arrest of Uncle Frýda for anti-state activities and the deportation of his family; watching with her father as the Germans forced Jewish families onto the trains; the Jewish woman who cleaned their house and whose husband died in a concentration camp; how during the war she went shopping with her mother for food outside the city and the Germans would take the food when they returned to the city; going with her father and searching for Jewish families after the war so they could return their hidden valuables; and the day that she said goodbye to Helga Weis.

Oral history interview with Helga Shékalová

Oral History

Helga Shékalová, born in 1930 in the city of Olomouc, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic), describes her mother as a Gentile and her father as a Jew born in Vienna, Austria; her father getting infected during the Spanish flu epidemic and suffering neurological issues afterward; her father working as an office equipment seller until having to stop in 1939-1940; her father’s doctor no longer being able to prescribe medication for him, so the Jewish community arranged for her father to stay at a Jewish hospital in Prague until he died in 1945; her mother converting to Jewish faith after she married her father, then both of her parents converting to Catholicism in 1939 and having her baptized to save her life; seeing a fascist march with people carrying torches; being expelled from school in the fourth grade in 1940, which ended her social contacts; not being allowed to go to parks or ride in trams; a time when a group of German children chased and beat her because she was wearing a star; her grandmother having her apartment confiscated as Jewish property, so she moved to Pekařská street in Olomouc; her grandmother being taken away on a train with elderly people and being shot; how she and her mother had to go to Prague to get registered and then being loaded on a train to Terezín (Theresienstadt); and working as a dental assistant in Terezín for prisoners before being liberated.

Oral history interview with Hildegard Sedlářová

Oral History

Hildegard Sedlářová (née Lex), born in 1926 in Šternberk, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses the good relations between Czechs, Germans, and Jews before WWII; the Germans forbidding Jewish children from attending regular schools and her one Jewish friend, Heidi Klimešová, becoming too afraid to speak; being aware of the Germans taking Jews’ belongings and confiscating or destroying their stores; her family hiding two Jewish women, a widow Mrs. Geslarová and Mrs. Brachová; her mother helping Mrs. Geslarová get to a train bound for Vienna; how the entire city turned their backs on her family after learning they hid Jews; the threat of the Russian soldiers to women after the war and having to hide from them; several atrocities committed by Russian soldiers; the commonness of suicide; how after the war families of German descent, even if innocent like hers, were treated very badly; Czechs taking what they wanted from her home and establishing a camp for Germans and a mass grave outside Šternberk; and seeing the mass grave.

Oral history interview with Larissa Šimeková

Oral History

Larissa Šimeková (née Grünwald), born in 1920 in Siberia, Russia, describes her father as once being a prisoner of war in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk as an Austro-Hungarian military officer; her father owning a clothing factory with an uncle; attending school in the city of Prostějov, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic), until Jewish children were expelled in 1939; her father being Jewish and her mother being Gentile; some Czech children yelling at her for being a Jew; Jewish people fleeing Sudetenland to Prostějov; her father’s factory being taken away; Jewish people having to give up their radios, bicycles, and gold; Jews being banned from cinemas and public places; groups of Jewish men having to sweep the streets; marrying a Jewish doctor in 1941 who could only treat Jewish patients; Germans turning a synagogue into a warehouse; her father panicking and divorcing her mother to protect their children; in June 1942, how transports began taking 1,700 Jews from Prostějov to the Czech city of Olomouc then to Terezín, a concentration camp north of Prague; being assigned to jobs in Terezín; routinely seeing dead people in Terezín and piles of bodies being covered with blankets and taken away for burning.

Oral history interview with Jaroslava Zoráhalová

Oral History

Jaroslava Franc Zoráhalová, born on June 4, 1927 in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes moving with her family to Zlin, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) and later back to Olomouc; how Jews had lived peacefully among Czechs and Germans until 1933; the Germans’ arrival in Zlin and the effects on the Jews including, having to wear the Star of David, having minimal access to food, being barred from buses, trams, cinemas, and many other places; seeing signs on buildings like “Jews out!” and “Jude” next to a drawing of a pig; hearing that some Jewish families committed suicide; being reared Catholic but having a Jewish grandmother; the deportation of her 71 year old grandmother with many of her siblings to Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz; learning after the war that when her grandmother arrived in Auschwitz she was forced with the entire transport into a truck and gassed to death; her mother not having to wear the Jewish star or be sent to a camp because she was not considered fully Jewish and her German father had divorced her Jewish mother; Jews in small nearby villages, like Jevíčko and Tršice, having to perform humiliating public tasks; her father’s work for the Baťa factory, which helped some Jews escape to various countries; how the factory helped one of her uncles escape to Casablanca; the fates of other Jews she knew, including Zuzana Bekmanová and the Herlich family; having only spoken German only once since the war; seeing after the war an old, very fat German man hanging dead in the town square; and hearing that a young disabled woman, Sášenka Halavaňová, sneaked into a camp where the Germans had to live post-war and whipped the Germans.

Oral history interview with Jan Jančí

Oral History

Jan Jančí, born in 1919 in the village of Veselíčko, Přerov District, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic), describes going to primary school in the village of Javoříčko in the 1930s; attending farming school and taking over a farm; Gestapo arresting him at his home on charges of supporting partisans, then putting him in prison in the city of Olomouc for 11 months in 1944; being beaten in prison; SS men going to Javoříčko and shooting people and setting homes on fire; later burying 38 people in Javoříčko.