Photograph of the water tower of the Novotneho Lavka [Old Town Mills] in Prague.
Overview
- Caption
- Photograph of the water tower of the Novotneho Lavka [Old Town Mills] in Prague.
The photograph was sent to Helene Reik who used it as paper for her diary in the Theresienstadt ghetto. - Date
-
November 1941 - Before 1943
- Locale
- Theresienstadt, [Bohemia] Czechoslovakia
- Variant Locale
- Terezin
Czech Republic - Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Elizabeth Margosches
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Elizabeth MargoschesSource Record ID: Collections: 2002.436.1
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Helene Reik (the donor's maternal grandmother) was born in Osoblaha, Czechoslovakia, in March 23, 1884. In the late 30s she moved to Opava (Troppau, Czech Republic) together with her husband Berthold who died in 1935. They had four children: Kurt, born in 1906, Margarete, born in 1910, Irene (the donor's mother) born in 1912 and Hans, born in 1915. All four children managed to leave Czechoslovakia by 1939: Kurt settled in Brazil and Irene and Margarete went to Great Britain. Unfortunately Helene did not emigrate and was deported from Brno on January 29, 1942 to the Theresienstadt ghetto where she yearned to record what was happening to her. Because resources were scarce there, Helene recorded her thoughts, recollections and diary entries in the margins and on the backs of family pictures that she had brought with her, as well as postcards and letters she received while in the ghetto. She died on November 15, 1943 from an infection that was the result of an appendicitis surgery preformed on her in the ghetto. Her materials and recollections were saved by her niece, Gerda Reik Lanzer, who was also imprisoned in the ghetto and who handed them back to Helen's daughter, Irene, after liberation.
- Record last modified:
- 2007-07-25 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1163349
