Elsa Markgraf

* 1930

  • "The first place was Holleischen, which was a camp. We were there for a while. Then the transport followed and that meant that now we were going back again. Then we went to Furth im Wald. We came back and we were in camp there again for a few days. A few days later we went from Furth im Wald to Augsburg. And from there to Heuberg, which was the last camp. There we were separated. We were told that we were now going somewhere and the others were going somewhere else. We went to America. That was near Nördlingen. We went to a farmer's place where we worked. We helped him. There we could eat and we got food."

  • "We were the first transport. It didn't take long, then the others followed. I remember that when they took us away, the village was so quiet and peaceful. We just had to go. We just had to wait to see who would come today and who would come tomorrow. And then suddenly they all had to leave. First some said they could stay, and then nobody stayed. Everybody had to leave."

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    Schönsee, 01.08.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 57:49
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - PLZ REG ED
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Home to 50 kilos. That was just life.

Witnes Elsa Reiminger Markgraf standing in front of the church in Rybnik
Witnes Elsa Reiminger Markgraf standing in front of the church in Rybnik
photo: Archive of the witness

Elsa Reiminger Markgraf was born on 19 June 1930 in the village of Dolní Hut’ (German: Unterhütte), located right on the Czechoslovak-Bavarian border. Her father died in 1943 in a Breslau hospital during the Second World War. On July 16, 1946, they were loaded onto the first transport and deported. She and her mother went through several camps, first arriving at the assembly camp in Holýšov, Czechoslovakia (German: Holleischen). From there, they were transported in transport 10 via Furth im Wald to Augsburg. The last camp they passed through was Heuberg. They docked for a while at Nördlingen, but then returned to the border area to the village of Schwarzach. In 1950 they managed to build a new house there. In Bavaria, Elsa Markgraf became acquainted with Hermann Markgraf, a native of the same village and also a displaced person. They married in 1953, when the witness was 23 years old. They raised two children together, a son, Hermann, and a daughter, Anita. Her husband died in 1970. Elsa Markgraf still lives in the house in Schwarzach.