RECOLLECTIONS - JEWISH FAMILIES OF LOSTICE
Examples of Oral History Recordings and Letters
Respect and Tolerance
EMIL FISCHER
He was a widower who owned a general store just behind the bridge on Olomoucká Street. Many young men from this area got their experience as shopkeepers in his store. He also used to buy animal felts. When I was a child I liked to visit his shop because for a hare skin he paid me a crown to which he added some candy. When the Germans came he was very afraid of his future and he often told my parents: “If I survive, I'll pay the whole mortgage of your house.“ But his fears came true. He was the first victim from Lostice of the holocaust.
Anna Drlikova, Lostice
MORGENSTERNOVI
Some people in Lostice were afraid to help us during the time of the Nazi occupation because we were Jews. Some were conscious of our plight. I remember Mrs. Linhart, the innkeeper, who used to bring us some food in evenings and the Mayor, Mr. Hauk, who visited us in secret and managed to get some “food coupons“ for us. Teacher, Mr. Frantisek Pokorny took care of us and did his best to help us in school.
Alzbeta Dostalova, Mohelnice
FRIEDA FUCHS
One afternoon I was sitting and talking with some girls on a bench not far from our house. Frieda Fuchs was with us. After some time, a German lady, Mrs. Bühn, passed by. She noticed Frieda, stepped nearer and started to slap her face shouting that she was not allowed to sit openly on a bench with other people. We were sorry for Frieda but we couldn't do anything. Mrs. Bühn and her husband were fanatic Nazis and Town Hall officials. They caused many other incidents like this one and they didn't like the Czech people either. Before the war was over they escaped back to Austria for fear of retaliation. Frieda died in a concentration camp in 1942.
Bozena Weiserova, Lostice
GRETA WEISSOVA
She was not married and she loved children. She visited our family to walk my little brother and to take care of him. In 1941 Gongol, the German policeman, came to our house and he threatened our parents saying that if a child was raised by a Jew it might be taken away from it's parents and put in an official re-education scheme.
Frantisek Faltynek, Lostice
KURT SCHNITZLER
He visited us regularly and he used to arrive by train late in the evening. I would meet him at the station. We would put a briefcase on his Star of David and then arm in arm we went home. After the situation became worse, my mother and I told him to stay with us hidden in our house. He spent a few days there, but he came to the conclusion that it would be dangerous for us and decided to go home... In Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp he worked as a physician. We corresponded secretly and occasionally I was able to send him some medical supplies that he asked me for. He died in 1943 in Auschwitz (Oswiecim). I still treasure some of his letters.
Marie Hajkova, Lostice
Everything was so nice before the war. I was carefree and optimistic. I was 24 years old when I went to Theresienstadt (Terezin) in 1942 and I had no inkling about what was to come, about what might happen.
Greta Fischerova, Lostice (Moravsky sever 1996)
„I like to meet my old friends, I am quite sentimental and therefore I like to come back to Lostice…On top of it (local dialect) Hanactina is in a fact my native language“.
Max White, London, Great Britain
(Moravsky sever, 27. 08. 2001)
Max White - formerly Maxmilian Weiss (2nd from right) with his friends
in the garden of the restaurant Na Pesti. Lostice around 1935
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