Helga’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Account of Life in a Concentration Camp by Helga Weiss

"...[T]he diary reads with refreshing immediacy, describing how a smart, spirited young girl negotiated increasingly desperate circumstances." from a review by Julia M. Klein in the Jewish  Daily Forward April 27, 2013

Helga Weiss, who was born in 1929 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, survived to see the journal she kept during and after World War II published in 2013. Her story is similar to others who were moved from camp to camp, each time not knowing where they were going and what their fate would be when they arrived.

As a young child she was deported with her parents to Terezin (Theresienstadt) where she spent most of her imprisonment. From there she was moved to Auschwitz, then to Frieberg, a satellite work camp connected to the Flossenburg concentration camp. When it didn’t seem like their situation could get much worse, it got even worse. She and her mother barely survived a sixteen-day trip to the Mauthausen concentration camp where they were finally liberated.

One of the most moving pieces of this memoir is the family dynamic. The author, an only child, was separated from her father early because once in Terezin males and females were sent to separate living quarters. But she did manage to see him during the day. Her father got work in the financial office and had power to delay the deportation of family members – many of their relatives ended up in Terezin. But eventually they are all deported. There is much agony: Should she and her mother insist on going on the same transport he is assigned to? He insists not.  Mother and daughter are deported the day after he is, and Helga hopes against hope that she will see her father when she arrives wherever they are being sent.

It is only in hindsight that the author comes to realize that incarceration in Terezin was bearable compared to what happened once they were deported. Her descriptions of Terezin encompass both the good and the bad. The closeness that developed amongst her and other teenagers, their birthday celebrations and parties are contrasted to the overcrowded conditions, the serious outbreaks of diseases like typhus, the annoyance of bedbugs and lice, the constant worry about being selected for a transport. Once they are on a transport, as they move from place to place, food supplies dwindle; in the weeks before the Germans surrender there is barely any food. Helga’s mother becomes so weak that Helga, still a young teenager, has the added burden of making sure her mother survives.

Helga Weiss and her mother had been imprisoned for three and a half years. The author was released when she was 15 ½, one of a small number of children from Terezin to have survived.

This edition of the memoir includes:
A map of Helga’s journey
A map of Terezin
An Introduction - Francine Prose places this memoir in the context of other Holocaust memoirs.
An Author’s Note – Helga Weiss writes about the writing and re-writing of this memoir
An Interview with Helga Weiss – the author answers questions posed by the translator Neil Bermel about her experience during the war and about the writing of her journal.
A Translator’s Note – Neil Bermel writes about Helga Weiss’s writing style and how he worked with the mix of the German and Czech languages.
A Glossary of German terms not translated into English

To watch an interview with Helga Weiss which also includes photos and some of her artwork representing scenes during her imprisonment, click here.
To read a previous post of a review of a cookbook assembled by women in Theriesenstadt, click here.
To read a post on this blog about a memoir written by Gonda Redlich, also a prisoner in Theresienstadt, click here.
To read a post on this blog of a memoir written by Petr Ginz, also a prisoner in Theresienstadt, click here.
To read a post on this blog about Madeleine Albright's memoir Prague Winter which has several chapters on Theresienstadt, click here.
To read a post on this blog about a book that takes place in Terezin called "The Girls of Room 28," click here.


People
Sofie Weiss
    Otto Weiss – son of Sophie; married to Irena Fuchsova
         Helga Weiss – daughter of Otto and Irena
                      Dominika, Natalie, and Sarah – granddaughters of Helga
    Josef Polak – uncle of Helga; exact relationship unclear

Friends and Acquaintances
Eva Vohryzeks
Fredy Hirsch
Laska and Ruza Vogelova
Jakob Edelstein

Places
Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic)
Terezin concentration camp, Czechoslovakia
Auschwitz  concentration camp, Poland
Frieburg, Germany
Mauthausen concentration camp, Austria

The Girls of Room 28: Friendship, Hope, and Survival in Theresienstadt by Hannelore Brenner, published in German in 2004 and in English in 2009

"A deeply sympathetic account of a group of concentration-camp dorm mates who stayed in touch years after their release."  from a review in Kirkus Reviews 7/15/2009

This book focuses on a group of young teenage girls and their leaders who lived in Room 28 of the Girls Home in the Theresienstadt concentration camp from 1942-1944 in what is now the Czech Republic. The author, Hannelore Brenner, interviewed many of those who survived and read journals written by them and others who were deported to Theresienstadt. She quotes extensively from many entries from these journals, especially from the journals of Helga Pollak and her father Otto where they reveal the heartbreaks and stresses of day-to-day life in the camp. Helga’s entries chronicle the life of an undernourished child who was frequently sick, but who dreamed about the future and worked at becoming a contributing and supportive member of Room 28. Otto Pollak, who lived in another area of Theresienstadt, wrote about his concern for the welfare of his daughter.

In an introductory chapter we meet some of the girls of Room 28 in the present and learn about their annual reunion. In subsequent chapters the author goes back in time and uses these girls’ experiences to describe the early round-ups and deportations to Theresienstadt and the daily life at the camp. Several chapters deal with the production of the children’s opera Brundibar, the sham visit by the International Red Cross, and the filming of  Nazi propaganda at the camp. Finally, the author follows the deportation of some of the girls from Theresienstadt to camps like Auschwitz and then the death marches the Nazis forced on survivors as the Allies approached. She ends the main section of the book with the liberation of the camps and the girls’ search for survivors.

The author efficiently presents background material about the strategy of the Nazis to present Theresienstadt as a model Jewish town. So in that sense, this transit camp was a better place to be than some others. The camp was overcrowded, and prisoners were hungry, plagued by bed bugs and lice, and many were sick and died from typhoid and encephalitis as well as other communicable diseases. But children and adults were also were able to take advantage of many educational and cultural activities. Concerts and plays gave the many gifted artists and musicians opportunities  to participate as actors, singers, composers and musicians. Audiences sat in rapt attention and many commented about how attending or participating in such events was a transcendent experience that allowed them moments when they could forget where they were.

Journal entries and interviews reveal that for the children there were two particular beacons of light in an otherwise grim existence. The gifted artist Freidl Dicker-Brandeis created a rich art program that involved the children in drawing and painting. And the decision to mount a production of the children’s opera Brundibar allowed the children to throw themselves into an exciting, enriching activity. First they auditioned, then rehearsed, and then performed. The opera, written earlier by the composer Hans Krasa who became a prisoner in Theresienstadt, was performed in the camp over fifty times to packed houses.

The cumulative effect of the multiple stories we read is powerful. Over the course of the book we have come to know the girls and their leaders, and their family and friends through their writing, and through the author’s research and interviews. One tragic story is hard enough to bear; multiply it by the number of prisoners we follow in this book, and it’s overwhelming.

An Epilogue includes contemporary photos of most of the survivors of Room 28 and short narratives. The survivors went on with their lives; they picked up the pieces, married, and settled in Israel, New York, California, Sweden, Moscow, West Germany, Vienna, Prague and elsewhere. Some, due to the cruel fate of politics, became citizens of the Soviet Union and for many years were cut off from the West. Like other survivors of the Holocaust, the girls of Room 28 felt that only other survivors really understood their trauma. And they knew that their past was better understood by the girls who had lived together in Room 28 than by anyone else.  Living in very close quarters under very difficult conditions in Theresienstadt helped them to forge strong bonds that hold those who are still alive together still.

To learn more about the book and a traveling exhibition click here.
To see a short clip from a production of Brundibar filmed by the Nazis in Theresienstadt as a vehicle for their propaganda click here.
To go to a very informative site about music and the holocaust where you find biographical sketches of many of the musicians who were prisoners in Theresienstadt, and which also has a lengthy discussion of Brundibar, click here.
To read a post on this blog about a cookbook put together by women in Theresienstadt click here. 
To read a post on this blog about a memoir written by Gonda Redlich, also a prisoner in Theresienstadt, click here.
To read a post on this blog of a memoir written by Petr Ginz, also a prisoner in Theresienstadt, click here.
To read a post on this blog about Madeleine Albright's memoir Prague Winter which has several chapters on Theresienstadt, click here.



People
The girls in room 28, including their leaders in bold print; others are family members not in Room 28 or not in Theresiendstadt
Rita Bohm – cousin of Lily Reich Wertheimer (see below)
Marianne Deutsch
    Peter – son of Marianne
Eva Eckstein – married Hermann Vit
Hana and Herta Eckstein – sisters of Eva
Hana Epstein
Eva Fischl
Leo Flach – married Elisabeth Kober
    Anna Flach (Hanusova-Flachova) - daughter of Leo and Elisabeth; married to Viteslav Hanus
        Tomas Hanus – son of Anna and Viteslav
    Michael Flach – son of Leo and Elisabeth
    Alice Flach – daughter of Leo and Elisabeth
    Irena Flach – daughter of Leo and Elisabeth
    Lizzie Flach – daughter of Leo and Elisabeth
Leopold Frohlich
    Marta Frohlich (Mikul) – daughter of Leopold
    Ruzenka Frohlich – daughter of Leopold
    Zdenka Frohlich – daughter of Leopold
    Jenda Frohlich – son of Leopold
    Jarda Frohlich – son of Leopold
Lilly Gross
Irena Grunfeld
Ruth Gutmann
Eva Heller
Marte Kende
Nathan and Ernestine Klein
    Ilsa Klein – daughter of Nathan and Ernestine; married Nathan Landa
        Eva Landa (Nimarkova) – daughter of Emil and Ilsa
            Viktor Nimark – son of Eva
        Leisl Landa – daughter of Emil and Ilsa; married to Franz Petschau
Hanna Lissau
Olga Lowy
Zdenka Lowy
Lenka Lindt
Ruth Meisl
Helena Mendl
Maria Muhlstein
Hermann Nath – married Elisabeth Kolb
    Vera Nath (Kreiner) – daughter of Hermann and Elisabeth
    Hana Nath – daughter of Hermann and Elisabeth
Eugen Kolb – brother of Elisabeth
Vojtec Polecek
    Bohumila Polacek – daughter of Vojtec
    Jiri Polacek – son of Vojtec
    Hanus and Hanna Lederer – cousins of Bohumil  and Jiri (exact relationship unclear)
Eva Pollak
Karel and Alice Pollak
    Handa Pollak (Drori) – daughter of Karel
Hanicka Pollak – sister of Karel
Sophie Pollak
    Otto Pollak – son of Sophie – married to Frieda
        Helga Pollak (Krinsky) – daughter of Otto and Frieda
    Karl Pollak – son of Sophie; married to Maria
Marta Pollak – daughter of Sophie; married to Fritz
    Josef – son of Marta and Fritz   
    Trude – daughter of Marta and Fritz; married Hermann
        Lea – daughter of Trude and Hermann
Freida Freud – paternal aunt of Otto; exact relationship unclear
Mimi Sander – Otto’s girlfriend
Gustav Deutsch – cousin of Karel
    Walter Deutsch – son of Gustav
Karel Ancerl – cousin of Alice
Ella Pollak
Ruth Popper
Miriam Rosenszweig (Jung)
Ruth Schatchter
Alex Schatchter – Ruth’s brother
Julius and Charlotte Schwartzbart
    Judith Schwartzbart (Rosenzweig)– daughter of Julius and Charlotte
    Ester Schwartzbart – daughter of Julius and Charlotte
    Gideon Schwartzbart – son of Julius and Charlotte
Pavla Seiner
Ruth Shachter
Laura Simko
Alice Sittig
Anton Krauss
    Marketa Altenstein – niece of Anton (exact relationship unclear); married Max Stein
        Ela Stein (Weissberger) – daughter of Marketa and Max
        Ilona Stein – daughter of Marketa and Max
    Otto Altenstein – nephew of Anton; brother of Marketa; married to Anna
    Kamilla Korn – aunt of Ela and Ilona (exact relationship unclear)
Jirinka Steiner
Eva Stern
Doris Stern – sister of Eva
Erika Stranska
Emma Taub
Ella Weiss
Eva Weiss (Gross)
Fritz Wertheimer – married to Lily Reich
    Hanka Wertheimer – daughter of Fritz and Lily; married to Abraham Weingarten
    Miriam Wertheimer – daughter of Fritz and Lily
Adolf and Wilma Rosenblatt
    Edith Rosenblatt – daughter of Adolf and Wilma; married Fritz Winkler
        Eva Winkler (Sohar) – daughter of Fritz and Edith
        Jiri Winkler – son of Fritz and Edith
        Pavel Winkler – son of Fritz and Edith

Others in Theresienstadt
Juliette Aranyi
Heda Aronson-Lindt
Adolf Aussenberg
Jiri Bader
Yehuda Bacon
Karel Berman
Dasa Bloch
Felix Bloch
Bedrich Borges
Hana Brady
Jirka Brady – brother Hana
Jirk Broll
Zdenka Brumlikova
Gustav and Ettel Heller
        Horst Cohn – grandson of Gustav and Ettel
Ottla David-Kafka
Peter Deutsch
Freidl Dicker – married Pavel Brandeis
Kurt Dreschler
Jakob Edelstein
    Arye Edelstein – son of Jakob
Alice Ehrmann
Paul Eppstein
Rosa Englander
Walter Eisinger
Zdenka Fantlov
Anita Fischer (Frankova)
Karl Fischer
Jindrich Flusser
Ota Freudenfeld
    Rudolf – son of Ota
Walter Freund
Anny Frey
Bedrich Fritta (born Fritz Taussig) – married Heini
    Tommy – son of Bedrich and Heini
Karel Frohlich
Norbert Fryd
Renee Gartner-Geiringer
Honza Gelbkopt
Kurt Gerron
Jana Gintz
Petr Ginz
Eva Ginz – sister of Petr
Franta Goldschmidt
Markus Mordechai Groag
        Wilhelm (Willy) Groag – grandson of Markus; married Miriam
            Chava Groag – daughter of Willy and Miriam
    Heinrich Fleischmann – uncle of Willy (exact relationship unclear)
David Grunfeld
Kurt Hacek
Hanus Hachenberg
Eva Herrmann
Alice Herz-Sommer
    Stephan Sommer – son of Alice
Leo Haas
Pavel Haas
Fredy Hirsch
Hans Hofer
Greta Hofmeister (Klingsberg)
Micha Honigwachs
Luzian Horwitz
Yehuda Huppert
Karel Huttner
Leo Jannowitz
Hanus Jochowitz
Bernard Kaff
Ilse Kalinof
Erich Kessler
Peter Kien
Gerty Kersten
Israel Kestenberg
Eliska Klein
Franz Eugen Klein
Gideon Klein
Rudolf Klein
Paul Kling
Paul Kohn
Jiri Kotouc
Else Krasa
Hans Krasa
Harry Kraus
Stepan Krulis
Ilse Landa
Rudolf Laub
Egon Ledec
Wolfi Lederer
Pavel Libensky
Leopold Lowy
Josef Lustig
Franta Maier
Thomas Mandl
Freddy Mark
Licka Mautner
Margit Muhlstein
    Maria Muhlstein – daughter of Margit
    Pint’a Muhlstein – son of Margit
    Eli Muhlstein – son of Margit
Benjamin Murmelstein
Zdenek Ohrenstein
Franta Pick
Marion Podelier
Walter Pollak
Paul Rabinowitsch (took the name Paul Aron Sandfort)
Gonda Redlich
Eva Reiser
Kamilla Rosenbaum
Miriam Rosenzweig
Dita Sachs
Milos Salus
Eva Seger
Rafael Schachter
Vlasta Schonova
Coco Schumann
Resinka Schwarz
Ze’ev Shek
Kurt Singer
Ruth Steiner
Edith Steiner-Kraus
Walter Stern
    Eva Stern – daughter of Walter
Felix Strassman
Oscar Strauss
    Leo Strauss – son of Oscar
Romouald Sussmann
Karel Svenk
Carlo Taube
Honza Treichlinger
Viktor Ullmann
Otto Ungar
Hana Vohryskova
Ilse Weber
Sary Weinstein
Ben-Zion Weiss
Edith Weiss
Fritzek Weiss
Helga Weiss
Magda Weiss
Fritz Winkler
Frantisek Zelenka
Otto Zucker

Others mentioned who were not in Theresienstadt
Adolph Hoffmeister
Ruth Iltis
Seppl Lichtenstein
Suse Pick
Dov Revesz
Zuzanna Ruzickova
Eva Schlachet
Franz Singer
Gita Torbe

Places
Hagibor Athletic Field, Prague-Strasnice, Czechoslovakia
Brno, Czechoslovakia
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Vienna, Austria
Kyjov, Moravia
Olomouc, Moravia
Telc, Moravia
Znojmo, Czechoslovakia
Chrastany, Bohemia
Kocise, Slovakia
Opava, Czechoslovakia
Liberec, Czech Republic
Louny, Szech Republic
Pisek, Bohemia
Olbramovice, Czechoslovakia
Achen, Germany
Hamburg, Germany
Sopron, Hungary
Novy Bydzov, Moravia
Bergen-Belsen, Germany
Auschwitz-Birknau, Poland
Kibbutz Hachotrim, Israel

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright

"Too young to have known her relatives beyond the odd childhood memory, Albright pieces together what she can, with letters, family recollections and a few photographs. She embeds these fragments in a well-wrought political history of the region, told with great authority." from a review by Carolyn Kellogg in the Los Angeles Times 5/13/2012

Margaret Albright, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former Secretary of State, was born in 1937 in Czechoslovakia to Czech Jewish parents who fled to England in 1938 shortly after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. In London her father, a diplomat who spoke many languages, was part of the exiled Czech government until after the war when he returned first to Prague, and then to his post as Czech ambassador in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Shortly after the Soviet army invaded Prague in May, 1945, he and his family returned to Prague and stayed until 1948 at which point they immigrated to the U.S.

Albright tells the story of what happened to her family and her birth country during World War II mostly through research; she was, after all, born in 1937 and was far too young to remember or understand deeply most of what happened. Her description of England’s experience of the war is quite vivid. And she does have specific early memories, such as when she and her family and neighbors huddled in the cellar of their apartment building south of London as German bombs landed with loud explosions. Though she has many memories of having been sent off at the age of 10 to boarding school in Switzerland, it wasn’t until many years later that she realized that her parents sent her to Switzerland to protect her from the difficulties and tension of living in post-war Soviet-occupied Prague.

Albright discusses her Jewish roots at some length. An article detailing the fact that both sets of grandparents were Jewish was published in the Washington Post shortly before she became Secretary of State. Albright stated that she had never been told about her grandparents’ religion but she comes to learn to her horror that aside from her maternal grandfather who died before the war, her three grandparents and other close relatives were all killed by the Nazis. In this memoir she writes about trying to imagine why her parents had converted to Catholicism and she is sorry she had never asked her parents about her grandparents. She also wonders about  how her father's sister Greta and her husband died in the war. They were parents of a first cousin who lived with her family for a time in England and in post-war Prague.  

Because the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt was in Czechoslovakia which was where many of her relatives were imprisoned, Albright made a visit, read extensively about it, and wrote two chapters on its existence. She details its history and describes daily life in the camp, including its rich educational and cultural offerings, quoting from some of the memoirs written by prisoners in the camp. You can sense her outrage in the chapter she devotes to the carefully orchestrated inspection visit by Red Cross officials to the camp which was transformed for the occasion into a seemingly benign place to live, its residents well-fed and content. She is astounded that the Nazis succeeded in “fooling” the outside world for so long.

This memoir is very strong in its narration of the fate of Czechoslovakia. Albright is obviously well versed in the language, conventions, and machinations of diplomacy and tells the story of the rise of Hitler and the German invasion into Czechoslovakia by introducing us to its leaders. She takes us through meetings that sealed Czechoslovakia’s fate in Munich, Yalta, and Paris. She also spends some time discussing the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine and she brings the story of Czechoslovakia up to date with a mention of the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. And she feels some regret that 1993 saw the official demise of Czechoslovakia as a country. One country became two: The Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Albright is well aware that with hindsight it is easy to see how everything went so wrong. Her experience as a diplomat primes her to apply the plot points of history to current world problems – especially genocide, and she discusses the lessons that world leaders should have learned.

This memoir includes photos of public figures and family. It also includes an index.

To read an article that questions Albright's assertion that she didn't know about her Jewish ancestry, click here.
To read an article about the visit by Red Cross officials to inspect Thereseinstadt click here. 
To read a previous post of a review of a memoir whose subject is Thereseinstadt, Petre Ginz 1941-1942, click here. 
To read a previous post of a review of a memoir whose subject is Thereseinstadt, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, click here. 
To read a previous post of a review of a cookbook compiled by women in Thereseinstadt that was an earlier blog post, click here.   
 

Family

Author’s father’s family

Arnost Korbel – married to Olga

            Josef Korbel – son of Arnost and Olga; married to Anna (Mandula) Spiegelova

                        Marie Jana (Madeleine) Korbel Albright – daughter of Josef and  Anna; (author)

                                    Anne, Alice, and Katie Albright – daughters of Madeleine

                        Kathy Korbel – daughter of Joseph and Anna

                        John Korbel – son of Joseph and Anna; married to Pamela

            Jan(Horza) Korbel – son of Arnost and Olga; married to Ola

                        Alena and George Korbel – children of Jan and Ola

            Margarethe (Greta) Korbelova – daughter of Arnost and Olga; married to Rudolf Deiml

                        Dasa (Dagmar) and Milena Deimlova – daughters of Margarethe and Rudolf

Irma Korbelova – sister of Arnost; married to Oscar Pater

            Herta Paterova – daughter of Irma and Oscar

Karel Korbel – brother of Arnost

            Gert Korbel – son of Karel

Marta Korbelova – sister of Arnost

                        Pedro Mahler – grandson of oldest sister of Arnost Korbel (sister not named)

Author’s mother’s family

Alfred Spiegel – married Ruzena

            Anna Spiegelova – daughter of Alfred and Ruzena; married to Arnost Korbel (see above)

            Marie Spiegelova – daughter of Alfred and Ruzena

Gustav Spiegel – brother of Alfred; married Augusta

Friends and Acquaintances of the Korbel family

Jaroslav Stransky

Jirina Smolkova – married Vilem Holzer

                        Mica Carmio – granddaughter of Jirina and Vilem

Frantisek Kraus

            Tomas Kraus – son of Frantisek

Places

Kysperk (Letohrad), Czechoslovakia

Podebrady, Czechoslovakia

Strakonice, Czechoslovakia

Prague, Czechoslovakia

London, England

Terezenstadt, Czechoslovakia

Pikwicka Forest, Latvia

Life With a Star by Jiri Weil published in Czech in 1949, published in English in 1989 (a novel); introduction written by Philip Roth

"[Josef Roubicek's] story stands as one of the most powerful works to emerge from the Holocaust; it is a fierce and necessary work of art." from a review in the New York Times by Michiko Kakutani on 6/9/1989

Jiri Weil (1900-1959) was a Jewish Czech writer who lived in Prague, and, according to Philip Roth’s lauditory introduction to this novel, lived a life in some ways similar to his main character Josef Roubicek. When the Nazis came to deport Weil he disappeared with the help of the resistance.

In the novel, which takes place in Prague, Roubicek at the time of the Nazi occupation is a young man who had been a bank clerk, but because of the restrictions placed on employing Jews, he has lost his job and lives starving in a garret where he’s burned most of his furnishings to keep himself warm.

Weil recreates an absurd and cruel world which takes on a surreal quality governed by Roubicek’s terror. The prose is spare and matter-of-fact, which has the effect of highlighting the horror. Roubicek knows he has been condemned even though he is innocent,  and we watch with mounting tension as he obsesses about what will happen to him next. When will his destroyers finally close in? When will he be selected to be deported?

Weil is also very adept at recreating the "Community," the part of the nightmare version of everyday life when Jew turned against Jew.The group of Jews in Prague who the Nazis designated as a governing body to enforce Nazi rules and regulations  are a terrifying presence. Roubicek lives in dread of  a message from them or a knock on the door.

Weil convincingly plumbs the psyche of his main character, his alter-ego. He also recreates the streets and neighborhoods of Prague filled with officials, as well as Roubicek's friends, acquaintances and many fellow sufferers. All of these various threads contribute to the novel's texture of reality.

People
Jiri Weil - author



Places
Prague. Czechoslovakia
Stresovice neighborhood of Prague

To read an article about the History of the Jews in Prague, click here.

Letter to My Father (or Dearest Father) by Franz Kafka written in 1919, first published as Brief an den Vater in 1953

 "[Franz Kafka] feared [his father] principally because he felt annihilated by his very existence; it was as though he and Hermann Kafka were living contradictories, one of whom must be false if the other is true." from a review published in the New York Sun in June of 2008 by Eric Ormsby on the occasion of the publication of a new British translation by Howard Colyer.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924), one of the towering literary figures of the twentieth century, was a German speaking Jew who was born and lived in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In 1919, in what seems to be a response to his father’s negative reaction to the (latest) woman Kafka wanted to marry, he wrote his father a long letter of complaint that he actually never sent. This letter is one of the many works of Kafka’s published after his early death.

This long letter serves as a memoir-like window into Kafka’s state of mind at that moment, and at the same time it provides a window into the life of the Kafka family. It is important to note that Kafka’s harsh portrait of his father as well as comments about how his father similarly treated other family members are Kafka’s version of how his father treated them. He complains that his father is overbearing, has a hot temper, and is sure he’s always right. Franz Kafka thinks of himself of having more the temperament of his mother’s family and despairs that he and his father will ever be close. 

He uses many examples to make his point. One of the most interesting is his discussion of his father’s religious practice which he says amounted to an obligatory appearance at the synagogue where he seemed barely involved in the service. But his father insisted that Franz accompany him despite Franz’s objections. Kafka also calls his family seder a farce and ultimately faults his father for serving as a poor role model for religious observance. He goes on to state that when he (Franz) became more interested in Judaism his father was upset. He feels that like in all other areas of his life his father crushed any sense of independence.

This is essentially a version of a familiar generational struggle.  A young Jewish man grows up in a poor family in a small town, moves to the big city, marries, and works hard developing a business to support his family. He becomes “respectable.” His son acknowledges that his father has worked hard to give his family everything, but his son feels he has demanded too much in return. Since the father insists upon unquestioning obedience and loyalty, he is particularly irritated that his son has no interest in business, especially the family business. The artistic/creative son feels totally rejected, constantly humiliated, and is full of self-doubt.

Franz Kafka had been reading Freud and understood Freud’s theory of family dynamics. The conflict between Kafka’s desire to please his father and his need to go his own way fed his writing, and various permutations of the father/son conflict can be found in many of his works. Sadly, since most of Kafka’s works were published after his death, his family had no idea of the size of his talent and both they and their son were never to know the place he would eventually hold as a literary giant of the twentieth century.

To read an article that makes a case for Kafka's connections to his Jewish identity, click here.

People
Family
Jacob Kafka – married Franziska Platowski
    Hermann Kafka – married Julie Lowy
        Franz Kafka – son of Hermann and Julie; author
        Georg Kafka – son of Hermann and Julie
        Gabrielle (Elli) Kafka – daughter of Hermann and Julie; married Karl Hermann
            Felix Hermann – son of Gabrielle and Karl
        Valerie (Valli) Kafka – daughter of Hermann and Julie; married Josef Pollack
            Marianne and Lotte Pollack – daughters of Valerie and Josef
        Ottilie (Ottla) Kafka – daughter of Hermann and Julie

Minze Eisner Kafka (relationship unclear)

Jakob Lowy – married to Esther Porias
    Julie Lowy daughter of Jakob and Esther; married Hermann Kafka (see above)
   
Friends and Acquaintances
Carl Bauer – married to Anna Danziger
    Felice Bauer - daughter of Carl and Anna
Max Brod
Otto Brod – Max Brod’s brother
Dora Diamant
Albert Ehrenstein
Lise Kaznelson
Robert Klopstock
Isaac Lowy
Otto Pick
Ernst Polak
Julie Wohryzek

Places
Wossek, southern Bohemia
Podiebrad, Bohemia
Prague, Czech Republic
Straschnitz Cemetery, Prague, former Czechoslovakia
Kierling, Austria

The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, Saul S. Friedman editor, published in Hebrew in 1982, in English in 1992

"The book offers a poignant, detailed record of the inmates' daily struggle for survival and their painful pretense of leading a normal life." from a review in Publisher's Weekly, October, 1992.

Egon “Gonda” Redlich, born in 1916, was deported from Prague to Terezin, the "model" ghetto, late in 1941 and started his diary on January 1, 1942. Having been an active Zionist, a school teacher and soccer coach he was chosen to be the head of the Jugendfursorge, the Youth Services Department, making him responsible for the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin. He was also a member of the Transport and Appeals Committee.

Redlich serves as an important eye-witness to day-to-day life in Terezin, including the 1944 visit by the International Red Cross that the Nazis had prepared for by staging the event. Redlich made entries almost daily and they are usually terse. He despaired about the living conditions and he felt burdened by his responsibilities, but he also expressed great love for Gerta Beck who was still in Prague at the start of his diary. Soon she joined him in the ghetto. When their baby was born it is heartbreaking to read of their excitement at his birth, their fears, their hope. The book includes a short diary written for the baby.

Redlich’s diary reveals what it was like to be part of the ghetto administration. The Nazis used the Altestenrat, the Jewish Elders Council, to run the ghetto, and he makes us feel the tension that they lived with every day. Ghetto life exacerbated fault lines amongst members of the administration as well as amongst the residents. Zionists had differences with assimilationists. There were disagreements when it came to sharing space between a group working on cultural affairs and others who wanted the space for religious observance. Practicing Catholics and Protestants who had been deported to Terezin because they were converts from Judaism or the descendants of converts caused dissension because they wanted to celebrate Christmas. And there was long-standing friction between German Jews and Czech Jews that erupted under the difficult ghetto conditions.

To the general discomfort and fear caused by overcrowding, disease, infestations, and meager food supplies, was added the fear of the unknown – who would be transported next and where would the transports be going? What was particularly devastating and what took its toll is Redlich’s role in obeying the Nazi orders to help fill transports with children. When the Nazis said they needed a certain number, it was his job to work with others to come up with a list.

It was agonizing for Redlich to be a member of the Transport and Appeals Committee. It didn’t take him long to realize that people did whatever they could to pull rank; some had friends in high places, some used bribery to buy themselves off of transport lists. Redlich himself was approached by family members and friends of family who asked for his help. When he couldn’t help them, they accused him of disloyalty. He did manage to exempt his mother-in-law and brother-in-law from being transported early on. But all these exemptions did in most cases was buy time. None of his administrative positions helped him from being transported. Gonda, his wife and seven-month-old son were sent to Auschwitz in October of 1944.

The Diary of Gonda Redlich includes extensive footnotes with rich in information including other sources to consult. Many entries refer to the Hebrew University Oral History Project and the Beit Terezin archives in Israel. There is a Foreward by Nora Levin in which she writes about the founding of Terezin by the Nazis and the role Gonda Redlich played in its administration. In the Introduction Saul S. Friedman draws a fuller portrait of Redlich. Also included are a map of Terezin, Bibliographic Notes, an Index, and a photo of Gonda Redlich.

To watch a short clip from CNN on a special Monopoly board created at Terezin that includes an interview with two brothers who survived, click here.
For an interesting discussion of Terezin, its conditions, and some discussions of health issues there, click here.  
To read a review in a previous post of a cookbook put together by women in Terezin, click here.

People
Max Redlich – Gonda’s father
    Egon “Gonda” Redlich – “married” Gerta Beck; author
        Dan Peter Beck– their son
    Robert and Hugo Redlich – Gonda’s brothers
    Wilma Goldstein – Gonda’s sister
    Bohusch Goldstein – Gonda’s brother-in-law
    Vitek Beck – Gerta’s brother
    Medah  Beck – Gerta’s sister
  
Carolina – Gonda’s aunt
Bertik – Gonda’s uncle

Eli Bachner
Stella Berger
Rudolph Bergman
Dita  – Stella’s sister
Leo Baeck
    Ruth Baeck – relative of Leo Baeck
Honzo Brammer
Fredy Hirsch
Jacob Edelstein – married to Miriam Olliner
    Arieh Edelstein – their son
Dominik Eisenberger
    Honza Eisenberger – his son
Walter Eisinger
Arthur and Rosa Englander      
Paul Eppstein
Nimka Federer
Ada Fischer
Desider Friedmann
Walter Freud
Tm Fritta
Ruth Gaertner
Willy and Manya Groag
Leo Janowitz
Franz Kahn
Egon Kisch
Heinrich Klang
Gideon Klein
Ota Klein
Sigi Kwasniewski
Egon Loebner
Karl Lowenstein
Walter Lowinger
Paul Morgenstern
Aaron Menczer
Erich Munk
Benjamin Murmelstein
Trude Herzl – married to Richard Neumann
Erich Oesterreicher
Sonya Okun
Edith Ornstein
Freidrich Placzek
Karel Polaczek
Ela Polak
Egon Popper
Fritz Prager
Dov Revesz
Kamila Rosenbaum
Igo Rosenfeld
Dita Saxl
Rudy Sachsl
Heinze Schuster
Zeev Shek
Willy Schoenfeld
Vlasta Schoenova
Berthold Simonson
Henrich Stahl
Richard Stein
Hanus Sylvester
Zikmund Unger
Giri Vogel
Robert Weinberger
Grete Wiener
Yaakov Wurzel
Gershon Zetner
Otto and Fritzi Zucker

Places
Terezin, Czechoslovakia
Olmutz, Moravia

The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942 by Petr Ginz, edited by Chava Pressburger, published in English in 2007

"While the diary itself is mainly recitations of the personal and political events of his days, his art and the brief excerpts of his journalism (he founded and edited a magazine in Theresienstadt) and novels reveal a burdened though delicate heart, and a fine mind and hand that were never allowed to grow so much finer."  from a review by Daniel Jonah Goldenhagen in the Washington Post, May 13, 2007

Petr Ginz was 14 when he was transported to the Thereisenstadt concentration camp from his home in Prague and 16 when he was killed in Auschwitz. In 2003 a Prague resident came forward with Petr Ginz’s diary and exercise books that contained fiction and drawings which had been hidden and forgotten. Petr’s sister, Chana Pressburger, a resident of Israel who had also been interned at Thereisenstadt, authenticated the two notebooks and the handwriting and then served as the editor for the first Czech edition and subsequent translations of the diary.

Petr wrote in the diary from February, 1941 to August, 1942. He made his last entry two months before being deported to Thereisenstadt.  Even though his mother was not Jewish, his family observed the Jewish holidays and seemed very close to Petr’s father’s large extended family.

Petr’s entries are often terse. They frequently come across as merely a record of what he did or saw that day. In print he does not speculate about the war, bemoan his fate or that of his family. But in his recording of what was happening you know that he was fully aware. For example, one minute he is reporting about his report card grades, then he writes about his being fitted for glasses, then of his being elected class president, then about school pranks involving mischievous science “experiments.”  But on the same pages that he has recorded these normal childhood preoccupations, he also delineates increasing restrictions leveled against the Jewish community, he “mentions” an especially loud explosion of shellfire, and he describes witnessing the constant tearful farewells between his family and relatives who were being deported. The juxtapositions of the childlike and the horrific – we know how it’s going to end – are heartbreaking.

It is clear from the full life he led which he records in his diary as well as from his artwork, poetry and an excerpt from his fiction  included in this volume, that Petr Ginz was very talented. His sister Chava Pressburger has written a substantial introduction that fills in a lot of the details of their life together and Petr’s life in Thereisenstadt where he created and contributed to a literary journal. At the end of his diary she includes a few very moving entries from her journal describing the time leading up to Petr's being deported from Thereisenstadt to Auschwitz. And she includes end notes that explain some of the history of the war that Petr alludes to in his diary.

To read an abridged version of Pressburger's introduction, click here.
To see several photos of Petr Ginz and several of his drawings created in Theriesenstadt, click here.
To see a trailer for a 2012 movie made about Petr Ginz, click here.
To read a previous post of a review of a cookbook assembled by women in Theriesenstadt, click here.

People
Josef Ginz – married Berta
    Otto Ginz – son of Josef and Berta
        Petr Ginz - his son; author of diary
        Eva (Chava) Ginzova – his daughter; married Avram Pressburger; editor of diary
            Tami and Yoram – daughters of Chava and Avram
    Emil (Milos) Ginz – son of Josef and Berta; married to Nada
        Pavel-  son of Emil and Nada
    Victor (Slava) Ginz - son of Josef and Berta
    Herma Ginz – son of Josef and Berta; married Karel Leviticus
    Anna (Anda) Ginz – son of Josef and Berta
    Miluska – married Otta Hansel; a cousin of Otto
    Jirina – married Pavel Hansel; a sister of Miluska, a cousin of Otto
        Pavlicek and Jozka – the children of either Miluska or Jirina
        Hana Ginz Skorpilova – Petr’s cousin; exact relationship not clear


Friends and acquaintances
Wolfgang Adler
Gertruda Baer (ova)
Felix Bardach
Hanus Baum
Emil Bondy
Ivan Dusner
Jakub Edelstein
Richard Erlich
Edita Fischhoff (ova)
Ota Fiser
Rita Goldmann (ova)
Zdenek Hayek
Petr Heim
Martin Heymann
Renata Hirsch (ova)
Heinz Kaufmann
Lianka Kohner
Emil Kolben
Felix Lederer
Ervin Mautner
    Egon, his nephew
Karel Mautner (relationship to other Mautners not clear)
Milos Mautner (relationship to other Mautners not clear)
Karel Muller
Berthold Ordner
Harry Popper
Karel Reich
Slavek Stein
Tomas Stein
Elisa Stein
Hanka Steiner
Hanus Stern
Ann Storz (ova)
Vilma Tapfer (ova)
Mila Weisbach
Erich Zinn

Teachers at the Jewish school Prague
Jiri Glanzberg
Elisa Stein
Robert David
? Weislitz
Jan Beinkoles
Irma Lauscher (ova)

Places
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Theresientstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia
Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Poland

Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for Her Mother's History by Helen Epstein 1997

"[T]his book is more than a family history. It is a moving evocation of an old world and its destruction." from a review by Ruth Gay in the New York Times, November, 1997

In this very readable, and extensively researched memoir, Helen Epstein focuses on three generations of women who preceded her: her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother.

Epstein, born in 1947 in Prague to parents who were both survivors of concentration camps, started writing this memoir after her mother died in New York where the author grew up.  She had felt incredibly close to her mother at the same time that she sought distance and a better understanding of her mother’s early years. That led her to want to know more about the lives of her grandmother and great-grandmother.

Epstein went to Central Europe – to Prague and Vienna and to the villages where her family had lived earlier and spent time in archives at town halls and in cemeteries, tracing her family in those records that she was able to find. Of course it helped immeasurably that she could speak and read Czech although she had much help from archivists, friends, and relatives she tracked down in Europe, Israel, and America. 

What’s particularly interesting in this memoir is the historical background and cultural history Epstein includes which situates each generation in its time and place. We see how they spent their leisure and work time. Her mother and her grandmother were both expert seamstresses, her grandmother having established a business, Salon Weigert , that attracted a wealthy clientele until the Nazis forced them to give it up and then deported them. 

In telling their story Epstein spends considerable time talking about the status of being a Jew throughout the generations in Prague and the surrounding areas, commenting about how assimilated her parents and many in their generation were. She examines their reaction to the advance of Hitler and their having to confront the fact that they were not like other Czech citizens, however much they had always felt they were.

This memoir includes photos and an extensive bibliography.

To read a July, 2010 interview with Helen Epstein about her family history with particular reference to her book Children of the Holocaust, click here.

People
Maternal grandmother’s family
Abraham ben Samuel – assigned name Furcht; great great great great grandfather of author
        Jakub – grandson of Abraham
        Lazar – grandson of Abraham; married Josephine; author’s great great grandfather
            Therese Furcht – his daughter; married to Judah Sachsel; author’s great-grandparents
                Heinrich – Therese’s son; perhaps not Judah’s
                Rudolf – son of Therese and Judah
                Leopold – son of Therese and Judah
                Emil – son of Therese and Judah
                    Peter Scott (changed from Sachsel)– their son
                Josephine (Pepi) – daughter of Therese and Judah; married to Oskar Weigert and then Emil           Rabinek; author’s grandmother
                    Frances (Franziska) – daughter of Josephine and Emil; married to Pepik (Joe) Schon (Solar); 2nd husband Kurt Epstein
                        Helen – author, daughter of Francis and Kurt; married to Patrick Mehr
                            Daniel and Samuel – her sons
            Joachim Sachsel – brother of Judah; author’s great uncle
            Rosalia Sachsel – sister of Judah; author’s great aunt
                    Gisela Saudek – distant cousin of Frances

Maternal grandfather’s family
            Israel and Franziska (Fanny) Rabinek
                Gustav – their son
                Leo – their son
                Gisela Kremer– their daughter
                    Erna, Berta, Clara, Felix – Gisela’s children
                Gabriela Roger– their daughter
                    Kurt
                    Greta
                        Margaret – married Alphonse Hirsch
                Emil – their son; married Josephine Sashsel; author’s grandparents (see above)
                Helena Rissova – distant cousin of author
            Lev Vohryzek – father of distant cousin Kitty
                Kitty Egererova; his daughter – distant cousin of author
                    Miki – her son
 Ilse Aichinger -a Rabinek cousin of the author
 Lily Hearst (Emil Rabinek’s niece)
    John Hearst -  Lily’s son; married to Jean
Vava Schon (Nava Shan) – cousin of Pepik (Joe) Shon (author’s mother’s 1st husband)
Franzi Petschek – relative of Kurt Epstein (author’s father)

Friends, Acquaintances, and sources
Jiri Tichy
Charlotte Janu
Jakob Kaufmann
Leopold Kompert
Dorothea Schlegel
Rahel Varnhagen
Henriette Herz
Fanny Lewald
Fanny Neuda
Sigfried Kapper
Stefan Zweig
Leopold Hilsner
Moric Schiller
Frantisek Langer
    Jiri Langer – Frantisek’s son
Franz Kafka
Ernst Pawel
Hermine Hanel
Jan Zidek
Bertha Fanta and Ida Freund - sisters
Zuzana Nagy
Leo Oppenheimer
Honza Pollak
Margot and Arthur Korbel
Dr. Karel Steinbach
Rabbi Richard Feder

Places and Institutions
Brtnice, the former Czechoslovakia
Iglau, Germany (becomes Jihlava, the former Czechoslovakia)
Vysocina, the former Czechoslavakia
Prague                            “
Kolin                               “
Brataslava                        “
Barrandov,                        “
Roudnice-nad-Labem        “
Breslau, Germany
Celle, Germany
Vienna, Austria       
Salon Weigert, Prague
Concentration Camps: Terezientadt, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belson, Birkenau