Their Neighbour Turned Them In

During the war, Hildegarda Sedlářová lived in a family house in Světlov, the local part of Šternberk. As most of the citizens she and her family were of German origin. In Šternberk there lived several Jewish families before the war. In 1941, Hildegarda Sedlářová´s mother took in a Jew, Mrs Gesslerová, because a young family threw her out of her house: “My mother went to the town and she was sitting in front of her house with two bags, crying.” Her mother had to inform the Gestapo, (Secret State Police), about it: “They told her that she is an old Jew and that she can take her, but she has to take care of her.” Hildegarda Sedlářová remembers that Mrs Gesslerová lived in their house for a year and a half. But one day the Gestapo came to their house. It was not because of Mrs Gesslerová, but because of a Jew Brachová who was secretly hiding in their house: “Mrs Brachová hid herself in our house in Mrs Gesslerová´s room. We did not know that. At night, they slept together in one bed and soon in the morning she used to hide herself up on a hill. One of our neighbours saw her and turned my mother in for hiding a Jew. It was about nine o´clock in the evening and suddenly somebody knocked the door. I and my mother went to open the door. And there were standing three men. Leather coats and hats. The Gestapo!” Mrs. Brachová was caught, arrested and probably deported to some of the extermination camps: “They took my mother to their office in Šternberk and interrogated her for several hours. They released her through our family friend´s intercession.” Mrs. Gesslerová survived the war and in 1942 she got to Vienna, then to the Great Britain, and from there she sent a note to the Hildegarda Sedlářová´s family.