Moravsky sever
June 26, 2007
They Took Their Suitcases and Went Towards the Death,
Only Three of Them Returned Back to Lostice.
The sad and warning Anniversary was remembered today in Lostice.
Exactly 65 years ago - on June 26, 1942 - over fifty Jewish men, women and children from the towns of Lostice and Litovel were transported to Theresienstadt.
Jewish families from Litovel were held in a detention center in Lostice for several months before they were together with Lostice families transported to Theresienstadt.
The unhappy procession consisting of members of the Jewish communities left Lostice already on June 22, 1942. They had to walk to a railway station in Moravicany and then they continued by a train to nearby Olomouc. Four days later they were sent in a transport AAf to Theresienstadt. From there almost all of them were soon deported to concentration camps in Treblinka (Poland) and Maly Trostinec (Belorussia), where they perished by the end of 1942. From 59 people who left Lostice in June 1942 only three survived – Greta Eckstein (Fischer) and her parents,” said Ludek Stipl from the Foundation for the Respect and Tolerance, which documents the history of the former Jewish communities in the Lostice area.
One of the many victims was twenty seven years old Kurt Wischnitzer. His parents owned a small and prosperous firm manufacturing the Tvaruzky cheese. Kurt also worked there. He was a quite good musician and was a member of local Sokol Band. He perished in Maly Trostinec together with his sister and parents.
Another victim was Zikmund Knopflmacher. His parents owned a house in the town square, where they operated a large store with eggs (and butter). Zikmund’s father was the last chairman and registrar of the Lostice Jewish Community.
Zikmund and his younger brother Otto were arrested already in 1941. Otto was executed in the same year (he was twenty years old) and Zikmund was killed in Auschwitz on June 28, 1942.
The transport AAf from Olomouc to Thereseinstadt consisted of 856 Jewish persons from Olomouc area (including Kurt Wischniztzer and Zikmund Knopflmacher). Only 44 survived and saw the end of the war.
Photographs:
August 10, 1938. The Ambassador of United States Clarr visiting the town of Lostice (in center with his wife). Far left: Zikmund Knopfmacher.
Kurt Wischnitzer with his motorcycle. Lostice 1937
© 2007 Developed by Jaroslav Brachtl AFirma.cz