“Professor Kocprlíková taught us Czech language and literature. Poor woman. When she came to the classroom for the first time and saw the name Fromowitzová, she said: ‘You are Jewish.’ I almost replied: ‘Yeah, Hitler told me so’, but I didn’t. She said: ‘Because of you lot, Hitler had built concentration camps, because of you my husband died in a concentration camp and my children died of scarlet fever.’ I didn’t know what to reply. This woman tortured me for two years.”
“In 1936 my father wanted to leave for Brazil because his cousin lived there. He visited Hamburg that year and when he saw how they treated Jews there, he said that it was high-time to leave. Nobody believed him, of course. My mother said: ‘What harm would they do to a woman with two children?’ His brother said: ‘I’ve never done anything bad to anyone, why would they harm me?’ This went on up until 1939 when my father fled illegally, crossing the Danube, Black Sea, Turkey and reaching Israel. Naturally, we stayed behind. He had fled without us because it was the only remaining option. My mum was certain that they wouldn’t harm a mother of two like her.”
“In 1938 and 1939 it was still livable. Later, when they called up all Jews to transports, we were among them. But for some reason, perhaps since we were of mixed race, they let us out. We were not taken away. On the way home, our mum had said: ‘This won’t happen next time. We are not coming over next time.’ She had probably told everyone that we were in a concentration camp but in fact we stayed in the garden. I was in the garden from sunrise till sunset so that nobody would see us and recall that we exist. My sister stayed with grandpa. They didn’t want us to stay in one place because if they were to catch one of us, at least the other should have been spared.”
“You can’t imagine how scared one became when they came over and when I couldn’t leave… I was ordered not to leave the bed because the people down in the house mustn’t have known that I was there. When my mum was out, I stayed in the apartment alone. I had spent whole days on my own, not even allowed to use the toiled, forbidden from leaving the bed. There was some candy placed next to the bed which was supposed to paint my tongue red as a symptom of scarlet fever. But when they came over, knocking on the door, I forgot to eat them. I was paralyzed by fear.”
photo: Dobový archiv pamětníka, současná natáčení ED
photo: Dobový archiv pamětníka, současná natáčení ED
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Eva Grossmann, née Fromowitz, was born on the 9th of August, 1932 in Olomouc as the youngest of two daughters. Her father, Wilhelm Fromowitz, came from a Jewish family, graduated in economics and worked in a family mill. Her mother, Helena, was a dressmaker in a fashion house and was raised as Christian who converted to Judaism prior to her wedding. Ever since 1936, her father was attempting to leave the country with the family. After some hesitation, he alone immigrated to Palestine in 1939. Following his departure, Eva’s mother decided to divorce him on racial grounds. Eva started attending school but was expelled in 1940. Both she and her sister, Ricarda, were summoned to a transport in 1942. However, their mother decided to send them into hiding to her grandfather’s. Eva hid in his vast garden and Ricarda inside his house. In the last year of the war, Eva’s mother obtained a confirmation stating that Eva suffered from an infectious disease and then hid her in the apartment. Both sisters remained in hiding until the end of the war. Following liberation, Eva returned to school. In 1948, her father came for a visit and decided to return to his family. One of the reasons for this decision was the expropriation of the family mill in Chvalkovice near Olomouc. In April 1949, they headed to Israel. At the end of 1950, Eva married Rudolf Grossmann, a Slovakian Jew. Over the years, she gave birth to two sons. In 1961-1964, they stayed in Nigeria where her husband was employed. At a later age, she graduated with a degree in archaeology and Egyptology, specializing in underwater archaeology. Eva Grossman lives with her husband in Kfar Shmaryahu, Israel near Tel Aviv.
