Věra Milcherová

* 1924

Holocaust
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    You have to stay human

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    “This whole life was pretty wild. I often found myself alone with everything. So I’ve forgotten a lot of things. I just turned ninety now, imagine that. That itself was a miracle, that I’d lived so long. Because basically right up until 1950 I was constantly seriously ill, I had pains, operations, I only have one breast now. I had a lot of difficult times. And I’m always under supervision, I mustn’t catch a cold. But yet I’m still full of life.” (Q: “What gives you that strength, that you’re full of life?”) “While a person lives, they must remain human. That means, to know how to help. That is what it means to be human. If I have the opportunity to help, I mustn’t run away from it.”

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    Don’t be indifferent

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    “All I can say is that, with all my experience, I retained a very beautiful attitude towards people. I feel a relationship with every person. I try, wherever I can, to help in some way. Even now. I’m also relatively popular with most people. Without wanting to make a big deal of it. I don’t know how to be indifferent towards a person who is suffering - not to react in some way. I still have, and I will have that in me. I guess that also makes me popular, but that isn’t why I’m doing it. I have it inside me, the need to help, because I experienced so many hard moments that I don’t know how to be indifferent towards people who don’t know what they should do. That is a fundamental part of my nature, I would say.”

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    Praha Hagibor, 19.03.2014

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While a person lives, they must know how to help. That is what it means to be human.

Milcherová Věra, 2014
Milcherová Věra, 2014
photo: Eye Direct
photo: Eye Direct
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Věra Milcherová, née Byšická, was born on 15 February 1924. Her father came from a Jewish family, her mother was German. She grew up near Mělník, at a farm belonging to the Lobkowicz family, which her father administered. Her father was killed probably before the beginning of the war, her mother emigrated with a new partner. Věra’s wartime experiences remain something of a mystery. She probably moved to Sweden in 1966, where her elder brother lived. Věra Milcherová is a widow, she now lives in a care home in Prague-Hagibor.

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Lekce života, Můj dík knihám

  • date:
    08.02.2002
  • medium type:
    Internet
  • medium name:
    Šalom, občasník č. 3
  • author:
    Věra Milcherová