STŘÍBRO, Why is my aunt named Eva?

Author: Students of High School and Trade Academy in Stříbro
(A chapter taken from the work Zuzana Křížová)




Before starting my work on this essay, I asked older members of our family whether any of my ancestors were of Jewish origin. Or, if at least any of our relatives were. As I expected to, I was told that none of them are. But my grandmother told me that she used to have a Jewish friend. She was her classmate with whom she became inseparable friends. She had beautiful blond hair and eyes as blue as the ocean. Who would say that Jews can look the way Hitler's favored Arian race should, right? Her eyes, she inherited from her father. He was a small man with red hair and a full beard. What did her mother look like, my grandmother unfortunately cannot remember. The only thing she remembers about her mother is that she was the nicest person and would always heartily and lovingly welcome her in her house. She was the only child, but her parents would never spoil her.

When the laws forced my grandmother's friend to leave school, my grandmother felt like a body without soul. She missed her best friend so much. It was forbidden to visit Jews and have anything to do with them. If anyone was found to break these rules, he was treated in the same way as if he was a Jew.

My grandmother's friend had relatives, whose family bought airplane tickets to USA a few months before 3. 15. 1939. They sold all they owned and fled to escape Hitler's threats. The parents of my grandmother's friend planned to flee in the same way. They bought tickets for early fall, unfortunately they weren't quick enough. Their mansion where they spent each summer was confiscated as well as their house. They moved into a small apartment. There they only had a few pieces of furniture, clothes and necessary items, and their maid. She loved them so much, she decided stay with them in such hard times.

My grandmother secretly visited her friend and so risked her life. She taught her what she was missing in school, at night they went on walks together. Her friend always had to keep her hand on her breasts to hide the yellow star, which Jews had to wear on black clothes and which could be seen even in the blackest night. So they would avoid trouble.

My grandmother could only recall with deeply felt pain the day, when her friend had to pack her things and leave her, maybe for ever. The moment when her friend stepped aboard the train and waved her good-bye for the last time in her life, she would inevitably remember ever since.

The girl and her mother went to Auschwitz. Her father was taken to Buchenwald. At the end of the war and following the liberation of the concentration camps, the father returned to his home county and began searching for his wife and daughter. For a long rime they weren't returning, nor did the survivor's agencies provide any information to help. He undertook an admirable task. He began traveling from one concentration camp in Europe to another. Still he found no traces. He found out that after their separation they spent some time in Terezín. Then they were taken somewhere else. So he continued searching then, in Auschwitz, he found their names on the list. All Jews were listed here, all those, who have found their death in the gas chambers. Completely defeated, he came "home", where he lived since the end of the war and wrote a letter to his brother, who immediately sent him an airplane ticket by mail. Perhaps he is still living somewhere under the Statue of Liberty. When my grandmother had her daughter, she gave her the name worn by her best friend…Eva. Actually, most of the children from their class named their daughters Eva, on of them is also my grandmother's brother who also knew her. They all named their daughters after her, so she would stay with them.