The Children from Lidice in the Infant Care Insitute

Seven children from Lidice, who were younger than one year at the time of the Lidice annihilation, survived the war in the German infant care institute in Masaryk Houses (at present Thomayerova Hospital). They were taken care of by German nurses, but their relatives could sometimes secretly visit them. They controlled their condition, brought them food and took pictures of them. During the Prague Uprising in 1945, the children were immediately taken home by their relatives. One of these seven children was Veronika Hanfová, married Rýmonová. She has no memories of those times; she knows it only by hearsay. Before her mother returned from the concentration camp, little Veronika was taken care of by her aunt Ms. Volfová. “My aunt kept telling me that my mother would come back. But I had no idea what does the word mother really mean,” recalls Veronika Rýmonová one of her oldest memories. “I just remember that it was dark, someone was holding my hands and they kept telling me: ‘This is your mummy.’ But I did not feel anything. She was a stranger to me.” Throughout the entire time in the concentration camp, the mother was kept alive by the hope that her daughter was still alive. Therefore, this meeting hurt her profoundly.