Liselotte Židová

“I was born in a German-Jewish family Lipschitzs in 1930. We lived in the village Leskovec nad Moravicí. Its former name was Spachendorf, both my parents came from there. My dad was born in 1897, my mum in 1905. My parents knew each other since their childhood, they were actually growing up together in that village. However, what it interesting is that the family Lipschitzs was the only Jewish family in the village. And as I got to know later, my granddad Lipschitz came from Skočov. And my granny Albertine, she was just from Leskovec. Her maiden name was Schlesinger. Otherwise it was totally a German village.”

“And the first what happened was that Arthur Lipschitz and Bohumil Trubač packed their stuff and went at our German granny, Czesch granny, at Rázová. It was sometime in June, which was a month later. It was somehow obvious at that time that people were counting with that displacement. Yeah, 'displacement,' it was the most tactful name for it. Well, I don't know, it didn't give the horrible impression that followed afterwards. So they went there and tried to manage the whole situation in some ways there. For example in the way that they tried to get various certificates about our Czesch granny's behaviour, how she helped, how anti-Nazi oriented she was. They tried to do the same with my aunt Ema who was also anti-Nazi oriented; her husband was in the Wehrmacht, it was the same with another aunt of ours. She was worried about him so she couldn't approve that of course, could she... In the end they gave it up with the aunts and wanted to protect at least our Czesch granny from the displacement. It was simply impossible for the reason that the major argument of the decisive organs was: 'What, you as a Jew who came back from the concentration camp are standing up for Germans?' And it was the major argument against which you were helpless as an ordinary person. And my dad had no more contacts or chances to intervene at some higher places.”

“In 1938 my dad decided that he was in such a danger just because of his Jewish origin that we had to leave. I remember those times. When they were making the decision at that time I knew that there was something wrong. Well, you for example overheard a dialog of adults and then, in comparison with the previous times, you had such a funny feeling of insecurity. You could get on well with everyone before. I remember that we were packing our stuff a few days before mobilization already. Then a lorry came and we simply took down our stuff, our suitcases, boxes and furniture then. And our mood escalated so much that we even couldn't load it all. Suddenly we got in and set off. And I remember that there were so many people in front of that lorry. I had no idea what they were shouting but they were shaking their fists at us. It was really scary. It was definitely no waving good-bye. Our departure took place on October 3rd in the evening. We went to Beroun, the soldiers unloaded our furniture and some other stuff in the square. We were allowed to sleep over there. We went to Olomouc. We stayed there in some lodgings for about three weeks. And I was attending school there as well. It was always like that. When we came somewhere I always had to go to school immediately. But it was still a German school there. Then we went to Frenštát... From there we went to Trojanovice, which is a large submontane village where my mum's sister lived. Her husband was a Czech. It was still quite common at that time... nobody demurred at that. So we went there as at some kind of a refuge. I started attending Czech school in Trojanovice. I had attended German schools by then. Neither my parents nor I knew a Czech word and my mum didn't understand a Czech word either.”

“I'm sure you've heard about the reservoir Slezská Harta. It is all under water. Leskovec as well. Half of Leskovec, a part of Rázová, a part of Dlouhé Stráně where my relatives lived. And I perceive it all as a symbol that the water thwarted it all. It covered the imperfections, the bad that had been there. You can see it as a romantic place in the photograph and it is beautiful. The moon is out, lovely, there is Roudno above that, it is a hill of volcanic origin. And I can see it all how it was under the water.”

“My aunt Mici took me with her to Leskovec in about 1942 and there was the border there. My granddad and aunt Herta lived there too. So I visited them and it was truly wonderful because it was when I saw them last. Shortly after that my Lipschitz granddad was transported to Terezín, he died there in 1943 then. Just before my dad got there. And my aunt Herta disappeared completely scentless. They came to pick her up one day. We think they were the Gestapo, the nearest one was in Opava. But we have never managed to find out, not even by repeated attempts with the help of the International Red Cross, where she was taken and where she ended up. (...) My mum still had her youngest brother and he had to join up the Wehrmacht. He was born in 1922 and he loved my dad above all because his own dad died when he was three years old. My dad was replacing him in a way till we were in Leskovec – he taught him to play the violin for example, he also lathered him, though. But he also bought him some sweets when he felt like having some, which his mum, Czesch grandma, didn't want to buy. And my uncle Richard came on holiday from the front just before my dad went to Terezín. And he came in the Wehrmacht uniform to Trojanovice – at the Trubačs. Those were my aunt, she was German and he was Czech. My dad was a Jew, my mum was a German Catholic. And then there were the sister of my uncle Bohuš and her husband, both the founding members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. It was such a get-together in one house during the war.”