We Were Terrified and Wanted to Go Home

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At the end of 1944, eight-year-old Alžběta, due to her half Jewish origin, was transported to the Jewish ghetto in Terezín along with her siblings. She remembers that all the children were afraid: “We were dumbfounded and diffident because we did not know what was going on. Imagine you are nine and under the command of German speaking ladies. A lot of children were crying. We were hungry; children who were supposed to grow were starving.” The very first day in the camp they separated the siblings into individual buildings. Little Alžběta stayed with her younger sister Maria in the so called kinder house. There children suffered from hunger, cold and were constantly bullied. For example, they had to watch the execution of their teacher Hela. The Nazis killed her because she taught children Czech. Right before the liberation of Terezín, the German wardens and teachers ran away leaving the children alone and without food. Both sisters decided to go home to Loštice and left the ghetto. Two days later they stayed on their own in a nearby park. “So, we made our bed on one of the benches. We were holding each other and sleeping. Imagine two children, in May, two little kids and nobody noticed us because everybody took care of themselves,” remembers Alžběta. By coincidence they were found by their father who was returning from a concentration camp: “And suddenly – it was a miracle; I cannot imagine how it was possible. Our father coming back from Germany, searching for us and finally he found us."

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Alžběta Dostálová (Morgensternová)

Alžběta Dostálová, born Morgensternová, was born on October 11, 1936, in Horní Studénky. Her father, Richard, was of Jewish origin, her mother, Božena, was not. Her grandparents, Julius and Laura Morgenstern, died in Terezin. Her family was hiding in Vlčice u Loštic, but they did not manage to avoid antisemitism there. During Easter of 1943, two members of the Henlein movement set their house on fire. Her parents lost all of their property and so they moved to Loštice. In the Autumn in 1944, Alžběta and her siblings were sent to orphanages and her father was deported to Terezin; eventually the children were also deported to Terezin. Upon their arrival they were put into different buildings. Nine-year-old Alžběta and her sister Marie went to the so-called "kinderhaus." There they suffered from hunger, exhaustion and fear, and, incredibly, they were forced to watch the execution of Hela, their Czech-Jewish governess. In May 1945, during the last days of the war, German soldiers and supervisors left Terezin. The sisters decided to walk to Loštice. For several days they slept in a park nearby, unnoticed by anyone. In the end their father, Richard, found them and took them home. He had to search for the other children all over the country; his youngest son, Pavel, returned home as late as in 1947. After the war, Alžběta finished primary school and then she studied at a secondary school in Brno. She worked for MEZ Mohelnice until she retired. She still lives in Mohelnice.

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Terezín, Velká pevnost

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Pevnost byla založena v roce 1780 Josefem II. Skládala se ze dvou částí – Hlavní a Malé pevnosti. V Hlavní pevnosti zřídili nacisté v listopadu 1941 židovské ghetto, civilní obyvatelstvo se muselo vystěhovat. Za sebemenší provinění byli obyvatelé ghetta posíláni do Malé pevnosti, což se pro Žida prakticky rovnalo rozsudku smrti, nebo byli zařazeni do transportu na Východ. Pro tyto účely nacisté zřídili zvláštní železniční vlečku, která vedla z blízkého nádraží Bohušovice nad Ohří. Přímo z města byly vypravovány transporty do likvidačních táborů smrti Osvětim, Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno a dalších. Z celkového počtu 87 tisíc lidí (63 transportů) se vrátilo asi 3600.