The way from Schwarzheide

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In April 1945, Luděk Eliáš witnessed the death march from the concentration camp Schwarzheide near Dresden to the Czech-German border. "We didn't eat anything practically all the way because there simply was no food, except for perhaps once or twice we got boiled potatoes in their skins. After about two weeks we arrived in Varnsdorf, which was then still a part of the German Empire. After a short break – I think it was two days – we were loaded on open cars, the ones used for carrying coal. In every corner of the car, there was a seat for an SS man with a machine gun. For two days and two nights we were hauled to some unknown destination. It was raining, so a lot of inmates who were too weak to stand lay down on the wet floor which was covered by feces. Many of them didn't survive the journey. We threw out their bodies in Česká Lípa because we didn't want to stand on them." On the night of May 7 – 8, the train arrived in Litoměřice and Theresienstadt, where we were handed over into the care of the Red Cross.

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Luděk Eliáš

Luděk Eliáš was born on July 29, 1923, in Slaný, where he attended elementary school and high school. After the occupation of Slaný, however, he had to leave the place because of his Jewish origins. He worked in various auxiliary jobs in the construction sector. In 1942, he was deported to Theresienstadt. In 1944, he voluntarily followed his girlfriend to Auschwitz, from where he got to the Schwarzheide concentration camp near Dresden, where he had to help in clearing up the debris left after the Allied air raids. In the last days of the war, he took part in the death march. He was released in Litoměřice and then treated by the Red Cross in Theresienstadt. After the war and his military service, he joined the theater as an actor, first in southern Bohemia and since 1956 in Ostrava. In the 1960s, he was the director of the theater. After 1968, he was expelled from the Communist Party and all leading positions. However, he continued to work in the theater, radio and television.

Varnsdorf, train station

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The town of Varnsdorf is located in the southeastern part of the Šluknov salient and is surrounded on three sides by the territory of Germany. On 24 April, 1945, weakened inmates from the Schwarzheide concentration camp – an affiliate branch of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp – arrived here after having walked approximately 110 kilometers. They spent a few days in the Varnsdorf spinning mill of the Häbler family. Then they were divided into two groups. The first group which was composed of Czech Jews (252 persons), was on 5 May, 1945, loaded into open coal cars and transported from Varnsdorf to Theresienstadt. The second group, about 220 non-Jewish inmates, walked on foot to Nový Bor.

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The way from Schwarzheide

Luděk Eliáš