Media Essay
Czechoslovakia - ID Card/Oral History
Erich Schon
Erich was one of five children born to observant Jewish parents. They lived in Vsetin, a town in Czechoslovakia's Moravia region that straddled the border with Slovakia. Some 70 Jewish families lived in the town of 12,500 persons. There, Erich's family owned a grocery store and operated a sawmill. Erich attended a trade school where he became an expert in lumber and forestry.
1933-39: The Germans kept Erich's family's sawmill operating after they occupied their region in March 1939. Since Erich had a permit to work in the forests, he helped Czech soldiers flee Moravia through the woods into unoccupied Slovakia. Once, when a group of escapees was seized, the Gestapo arrested him. At their prison in Brno-Spielberg Erich was tortured: he was forced to hold up buckets of water while they burned his chest with cigarettes.
1940-44: Then Erich was sent to Nazi camps--Dachau in 1940, Hamburger-Neuengamme in 1941, and Auschwitz in 1942. In Auschwitz he was in a maintenance squad fixing wheel bearings, locks, pipes--anything metal. They were even made to repair leaky pipes in the crematorium. One day, while fixing a broken wagon, Erich watched as prisoners dug up thousands of corpses buried in mass graves--gassing victims. The decayed bodies were moved on small wagons to a pile some distance away and doused with gasoline. The pyre of bodies was torched.
Erich later escaped with his 11-year-old son from a transport to Mauthausen. He returned to Czechoslovakia and was a witness in the trial of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess.
Item ViewRobert Kulka
Robert was the son of Jewish parents, Leopold and Florentina Kulka, and was raised in the Moravian town of Olomouc. After completing secondary school, he attended a business school until 1909. He began a business in Olomouc and in 1933 he married Elsa Skutezka from the Moravian city of Brno. The couple made their home in Olomouc.
1933-39: The Kulkas' son, Tomas, was born a year and a day after they were married. In 1937 Elsa's father passed away and the Kulkas moved to Brno, where Elsa and her husband took over the family shipping business. Two years later, Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia and immediately imposed restrictions on the Jewish population.
1940-42: On January 2, 1940, Robert, Elsa, Tomas and Robert's mother-in-law were evicted from their house. That same winter, Robert's brother and sister-in-law managed to immigrate to Palestine [the Yishuv]. But Robert was determined to stay in Brno and save the family business. A year later, Elsa was forced to sell the business to a German for a mere 200 Czechoslovak crowns, or less than $10. On March 31, 1942, Robert and his family were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in the western part of Czechoslovakia.
On May 9, 1942, Robert was deported to the Ossowa forced-labor camp for Jews. He died within four months of arriving there. He was 52 years old.
Item ViewZuzana Gruenberger
Zuzana was the youngest of three children born to Hungarian-speaking Jewish parents in the city of Kosice. She was the baby of the family, and they called her Zuzi. Her father was a tailor whose workshop was in the Gruenbergers' apartment.
1933-39: In November 1938, when Zuzana was 5, Hungarian troops marched into Kosice and made it a part of Hungary. The Hungarians changed the name of the city to Kassa. The Hungarian government was friendly to Nazi Germany and introduced anti-Jewish laws in Kosice.
1940-44: In 1941, one year after Zuzana began school, the Hungarians moved the Gruenbergers and other Jewish families to camps in other parts of Hungary. The Gruenbergers were released the following spring and returned to Kosice, but Zuzana's brother and father were taken soon after for slave labor. In 1944 Kosice's 12,000 Jews, including Zuzana, her mother and sister, were rounded up by Hungarians who were cooperating with the Germans. They were sent to a brickyard at the city's edge and put on trains headed for Auschwitz.
Zuzana and her mother were gassed immediately on arriving in Auschwitz in May 1944. Zuzana was 11 years old.
Item ViewJanka Glueck Gruenberger
Janka was one of seven children raised in a Yiddish-and Hungarian-speaking household by religious Jewish parents in the city of Kosice. In 1918, when she was 20 years old, Kosice changed from Hungarian to Czechoslovak rule. Three years later, Janka married Ludovit Gruenberger, and their three children were born Czech citizens.
1933-39: Janka was an accomplished milliner, and she helped her husband run a tailoring business from their apartment. Like many Jews in Kosice, Janka and Ludovit were upset when Czechoslovakia was partitioned by Nazi Germany, and Kosice was returned to Hungarian rule in November 1938. Kosice's new Hungarian rulers admired Nazi Germany and quickly introduced anti-Jewish laws.
1940-44: In 1941 the Gruenberger family was seized in a Hungarian roundup of foreign-born Jews and interned in camps in northern Hungary. They were released in 1942, but Janka's son and husband were taken by the Hungarians soon after as conscript labor. German troops entered Kosice on March 19, 1944, and that April, Janka and her daughters were concentrated with other Jews in a brickyard at the edge of the city. One month later, Janka and her daughters were deported to Auschwitz.
Janka and her daughter, Zuzana, were gassed immediately on arriving in Auschwitz in May 1944. Janka was 45 years old.
Item ViewZdenka Popper
Zdenka was one of four children born to a Jewish family in Kolinec, a southwestern Bohemian town near the German border. Her father was a farmer and a lumber and grain merchant. Situated in the foothills of the Bohemian Forest, Kolinec was surrounded by rolling hills. Zdenka attended business school in the nearby town of Klatovy and, in 1927, moved to Prague with her uncle.
1933-39: Zdenka remembers how worried her mother was about the rise of German antisemitism in 1932. After listening to a radio broadcast about Germany she told her children, "Something terrible is going to happen to the Jewish people." Zdenka and her sister responded, "Not in Czechoslovakia; we have democracy." In the fall of 1938 the Western powers allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland, and on March 15, 1939, the Germans occupied Bohemia.
1940-44: In 1942 Zdenka was deported to Theresienstadt, the Nazis' "model ghetto" used to show their "humane" treatment of Jews. Once a German camera crew was in the ghetto and when she walked up, they shoved her out of the way; they were only filming people who were homely or had large noses--those who fit the German stereotypes of Jews. In July 1944 the Nazis let the Red Cross inspect the ghetto. Before the visit, they ordered a beautification project. Dummy parks and schools were set up. Film crews recorded the ghetto's "beauty."
In 1944 Zdenka was deported to the Oederan camp where she worked in an ammunition factory. Oederan's prisoners were later marched to Theresienstadt and liberated there in May 1945.
Item ViewDavid Bergman
David was born to religious Jewish parents in a small town in Ruthenia, Czechoslovakia's easternmost province, which had been ruled by Hungary until 1918. Located in the Carpathian Mountains, the town was so isolated that news from the rest of the country would arrive by a drummer who would read the news in the town's central square. David's father worked as a tailor and his mother was a seamstress.
1933-39: While David's parents worked, he would be at home having a good time. They had a beautiful home with all the necessary comforts, including an outhouse in the back. A Czech army officer lived in their home until the Hungarians annexed their province in March of 1939. After that, at school David had to pledge allegiance to Hungary. Hungarian police with feathers in their green hats patrolled their streets enforcing anti-Jewish laws.
1940-44: David was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 [and soon after was selected for deportation to the Plaszow concentration camp]. Later, at the Reichenbach camp he was crammed in an open cattle car with 150 living skeletons headed for another concentration camp. One by one they fell down and were trampled. After half died, it was possible to sit on the dead. Someone fell on him--the person was dying. David hadn't had any food or water in four days. With all his remaining strength David pushed the body off and fell on top of him. He tried to push David away, but they were both too weak. In a final effort, he bit David's leg and then died.
David was one of three who survived the seven-day trip to the Dachau camp. He was freed near Innsbruck, Austria, in May 1945 and immigrated to the United States in 1947.
Item ViewRuth Freund Reiser
Ruth was a child of middle-class Jewish parents living in Czechoslovakia's capital, Prague, where her father worked as a bank clerk. As native Czechs, her parents considered themselves as much Czech as Jewish. In 1933 Ruth was in her second year at a public girls' secondary school.
1933-39: The Germans occupied Prague in March 1939 and imposed many restrictions. Jews were no longer allowed to attend school, so Ruth's education stopped at age 13. Jews had to surrender many of their possessions such as radios, bicycles, musical instruments, and pets. They weren't allowed to walk in certain streets, or to go to a park or a cinema, or use a bus or a street car. For Ruth, normal life was at an end.
1940-44: Ruth was deported to Auschwitz from the Theresienstadt ghetto in late 1944. Some weeks later she was selected for a labor transport. Wanting to be sure she'd get out of Auschwitz, she managed to stand near the front of the column of 1,000 women. Then a command of "Turn about!" dashed her hopes. She ended up at the back of the line with those to be gassed. Nobody slept that night as, expecting to be gassed, they waited in front of the crematorium. By a twist of fate, the next day Ruth was put on another labor transport.
Ruth was deported to Lenzing, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Liberated by American troops, Ruth returned to Prague. She was the sole survivor of her family.
Item ViewTomas Kulka
Tomas' parents were Jewish. His father, Robert Kulka, was a businessman from the Moravian town of Olomouc. His mother, Elsa Skutezka, was a milliner from Brno, the capital of Moravia. The couple was well-educated and spoke both Czech and German. They married in 1933 and settled in Robert's hometown of Olomouc.
1933-39: Tomas was born a year and a day after his parents were married. When Tomas was 3, his grandfather passed away and the Kulkas moved to Brno, which was his mother's hometown. On March 15, 1939, a few weeks before Tomas' fifth birthday, the Germans occupied Bohemia and Moravia, including Brno.
1940-42: On January 2, 1940, Tomas and his parents and grandmother were evicted from their house by the Germans. Hoping to save the family business, Tomas' father decided to remain in Brno. Because Tomas was Jewish, he was not allowed to begin school. A year later, Tomas's parents were forced to sell the business to a German for a mere 200 Czechoslovak crowns, or less than $10. On March 31, 1942, the Kulkas were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in western Czechoslovakia.
On May 9, 1942, Tomas was deported to the Sobibor killing center where he was gassed. He was 7 years old.
Item ViewMiso Vogel
Miso came from a religious family in a small village in Slovakia, where his father was a cattle dealer. He was the eldest of five children. When Miso was 6 his family moved to Topol'cany, where the children could attend a Jewish school. Antisemitism was prevalent in Topol'cany. When Miso played soccer, it was always the Catholics versus the Jews.
1933-39: In 1936 Miso had his bar mitzvah and was considered a man. His grandparents traveled 50 miles for it; he was so happy they were all together. In March 1939 the Hlinka Guards, Slovak fascists, took over their town. His family's barber, a very nice man, became a Hlinka guardsman. When Germany invaded Poland in September, the German army requisitioned his father's cattle and horses.
1940-44: Miso's sister and brother were deported, then it was his turn. They sang the Czechoslovak national anthem and their Jewish anthem, "Hatikva," on the way to their unknown destination. At Auschwitz Miso was prisoner #65316 and sorted baggage contents of newly arrived Jews who were marched to the gas chambers. All of his family was gassed at Auschwitz except for his father, who was assigned to slave labor. Miso visited him every night after roll call. After his father fell ill, he told him, "Try to survive and carry on the family name." The next day he was gassed.
Miso was deported to two more camps; at the Landsberg labor camp, he escaped to the woods just as the U.S. Army entered the area in April 1945. In 1946 he immigrated to America.
Item ViewElias (Elya) Grosmann
Elias was born in a small town in the hill country of northeastern Slovakia. His family was Jewish, and he grew up in a religious home in which both Yiddish and Hungarian were spoken. His father was a peddler and his mother ran a small general store. Besides attending public schools, Elias received a formal Jewish education and attended Medzilaborce's rabbinical academy.
1933-39: The townspeople were mostly Jewish and worried about Nazi Germany. The German annexation of Austria in March 1938 alarmed them. Some left for Palestine, but their town's Jewish leadership opposed creating a Jewish state in Palestine. Elias was one of the few Zionists in town. When an independent Slovakia was created in March 1939, it became an ally of Nazi Germany and adopted anti-Jewish laws. Elias prayed to God to save them.
1940-44: The Slovakian government "Aryanized" Elias' family business and they lost their livelihood. After his twentieth birthday, he was drafted into a Slovak labor battalion; his was known as the "kosher battalion." He got the same pay as any other soldier, but instead of a gun, he had a shovel. Elias' job was road construction. It was hard work but he was safe until October 1944 when the SS surrounded and captured them. Four days later Elias arrived at Auschwitz, where he was selected for slave labor rather than for the gas chamber.
Elias was transferred to the Flossenbürg camp in January 1945 and was finally liberated near Dachau by American troops on May 2, 1945. He immigrated to the United States in 1947.
Item ViewElsa (Eliska) Skutezka Kulkova
Elsa was the eldest of three children born to Jewish parents in Brno, the capital of Moravia, where her father ran a successful shipping company. In 1920 she graduated from a German-language secondary school. She married and moved to Bratislava, but the marriage was unsuccessful and Elsa returned to Brno in 1926, where she opened a millinery business.
1933-39: On May 24, 1933, Elsa married Robert Kulka and the couple settled in Robert's hometown of Olomouc. Their son, Tomas, was born a year and a day later. In 1937 Elsa's father passed away, and the Kulkas moved to Brno to take over the family's shipping business. In March 1939 the Germans occupied Bohemia and Moravia, including Brno. They immediately imposed restrictions on the Jewish population.
1940-42: On January 2, 1940, Elsa, Robert, Tomas and Elsa's widowed mother were evicted from their house. That same winter Elsa's younger brother and sister managed to emigrate to Palestine [the Yishuv], but Elsa's husband, Robert, was determined to stay in Brno to save the family business. A year later, Elsa was forced to sell the business to a German for a mere 200 Czechoslovak crowns, or less than $10. On March 31, 1942, Elsa and her family were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in the western part of Czechoslovakia.
On May 9, 1942, Elsa was deported to the Ossowa forced-labor camp for Jews. She died after six months of slave labor. She was 40 years old.
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