The female SS-members were fleeing from the camp on bicycles
In October 1944, about a hundred Czech women were transferred from Auschwitz to work in a flax processing factory in Merzdorf. Among these women was also Jana Dubová. After half a year of hard work, the camp was liberated by the Red Army. She recalled: "On May 7th, 1945, we saw from the attic of our barracks, that the female SS-guards were leaving the camp on bicycles. Thus we were left entirely without supervision. After three years and one month, I finally had a feeling of infinite happiness. With my friends, we ran down and we hugged each other, lay in the grass, jumped out of joy and cried: we survived!" On May 8, the factory in Merzdorf was occupied by Russians. They roasted a calf for the starved women. "And we, the starving girls, ate every piece of meat to the bone." The women have fond memories of the first group of Russian soldiers. The soldiers treated them kindly and tried to help. A group of Czech women, including Jana Dubová, joined them and walked with them on the way home.
Hodnocení
Abyste mohli hodnotit musíte se přihlásit!
Trasy
Příběh není součastí žádné trasy.
Komentáře
Jana Dubová
Jana Dubová, née Heller, was born on August 30, 1926, in Prague. She came from a Czech Jewish family. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, her father wanted Jana to take part in the rescue operation of Sir Nicholas Winton, who organized the departure of Jewish children to safety in England. Unfortunately, it was already too late for Jana to leave as the war broke out. She thus had to stay in the Protectorate and in April 1942, she and her family were deported to Theresienstadt. Jana remained in Theresienstadt until the fall of 1944, when she was placed in a transport headed to Auschwitz. After their arrival, her mother was sent to the gas chambers right away. After about three weeks in Auschwitz, Jana was selected to work with other women in Merzdorf, where they worked in a factory for flax processing. There she had to live and work under tough conditions, with very little food, performing a difficult job. By the end of the war, an epidemic of typhus broke out in the factory. Right after the liberation of the camp by the Russians, Jana and a few girlfriends set out on foot on a journey back home, on the tail of the receding front lines. The return to Prague was difficult. Out of the whole family that counted 30 people, only her and her sister survived the Holocaust. After the war, she married her boyfriend, whom she knew from Theresienstadt and who was also a survivor of the Holocaust. She graduated from the State School of Graphic Arts and made a living with applied graphics. Jana Dubová created a series of paintings called the "Dreams of the Dead," in which she depicted her memories.
