WRITTEN WORKS

Holocaust in the Olomouc region constituted only a fraction of a plan, which expected to exterminate the entire Jewish race. "Before the war we had nearly 4000 members," says Mr. Miloš Dobrý, the secretary of the Jewish community in Olomouc: "Following the war, about 350 of them have returned, including emigrants, soldiers and individuals who were hiding. Myself, I stayed alive because I was lucky. I helped others to survive when I had the chance, often in situations, which are today hard to imagine. My own involvement was just a fraction of what would be called success in the camp. Indeed, in 90 cases out of 100, it was a matter of chance, that I wasn't standing in the line, where people who were chosen for certain death, had to face it in inhumane conditions."
None of the numbers in the following accounts can ever encompass the extent of the tragedy, which has met the disappeared families, their relatives and friends. What do we know about them today? Does anyone remember the time when they were waiting for the transport in Loštice?
"Yes, I remember," tells Ctibor Lolek (80) who had to move, in October 1938, his "Social Press Company" from Zábřeh to Loštice. "I saw a group of people who carried luggage, walking to the Moravičany railway station. I recognized three or four faces, but I can't remember whether the group was led by an armed guard. There were about 50 people."
Anna Pazderová, formerly Doubravská (75), commuted from Loštice to Litovel - the hairdressers' school. She told us about the transport in her own words: "No one wanted to be there, because we were afraid to be taken along by accident. A young Jewish woman asked me some time earlier to take a ring to her boyfriend in Ostrava. He was a rabbi, but I never wanted to have much to do with Jews. I knew they weren't in for a good deal. Before the transport I spoke with Mrs. Fischerová, who, together with her husband, was the only one to return from the concentration camp. She's never spoken to me about the things she went through. When she ever came upon the subject, she always said, "Anička, you will be happier not to know this." (Referring to Greta Ecsteinová, author's note.)
Mrs. Anna Pazderová remembers that Jews in Loštice had to wear the yellow star, same as everywhere else. "Some didn't wear it, but in Loštice no one would report to the authorities. However, it is true that they were forbidden to walk into town, except on Monday from 8 to 9 in the morning, otherwise they had to stay in the ghetto."
The June 22nd 1942 transport from Loštice included 59 Jews from Loštice and also Jews from Litovel. "The transport was coded Aaf," says Mr. Dobrý. "It was headed for Terezin from Olomouc four days later. Out of 909 people who were transported from the Šumperk and Přerov regions in this term, 865 died. The only one who returned to Loštice was Gertruda Ecksteinová (born 1914) with her mother Olga and father Vítězslav."

Besides the Ecksteins, who made their living as cheese makers, buying up and selling eggs in the building of today's post office and later also in house number 19, other Jewish families of private businessmen were transported to concentration camps. Leopold Ehrlich, tanner, with his wife Marie and son Herman (in "The Gerbírna", number 22), tradesman Emil Fischer (born 1882, house number 247 "V Závodí"), Otto Loff, tradesman with mixed goods and his wife Erna (house number 54 in the town square), Edmund Knepfelmacher, mass-buyer and seller of eggs with his wife, sons Sigmund (born 1913) and Otta (born 1920) - from house number 63 in the town square, there is a flower shop today, Karel Hirsch (born 1847), butcher, with his wife, daughters Greta and Frída (house number 100, near the mill), Arnošt and Žofie (born 1895) the Eckstein, cheese makers (house number XX), Moric Klein, Jewish rabbi, with daughter Ela, cheese makers (house number III) and Irma Wischnitzer (born 1886) businesswoman with cheese, with son Kurt (born 1916) and daughter Bibi (born 1921) - from house number 174 in Žadlovická street. This list is based on information taken from a publication by Jan Weiser (Community of Private Crafts 1878-1948, published by Loštice Town Hall 1999). It isn't complete, because other reports show that holocaust afflicted those, who weren't members of this union but lived in the ghetto, as well.

THE STORY OF ALŽBĚTA MORGENSTERNOVA

"When I worked for an insurance company I visited homes and wrote contracts. I had to keep my eyes open. In Loštice I often saw that people had things which were left behind by Jews. I thought they might have been asked to look after them because they were friends of the owners. But why did they keep the items even when none of the local Jews have returned? They had no use for these items - these were ritual objects used in prayer."
Alžběta Morgensternová was the eldest daughter of Mr. Morgenstern, a teacher. He married a Christian woman from Litovel and had one more daughter and three sons with her.
"We lived in Horní Studénky. My father had a college degree, but never became a teacher. When Germans came, we moved to Vlčice. There our house was burned in 1943 around Easter time. My brother, who was two months old and dressed in a shirt and wrappers, was carried out of the burning house. I know who started the fire, but I have no intention of opening the cause. The person in question lives in Germany and he is very sick. It was worse when I took my brother to show him where he was born in Vlčice. One woman guessed right away, that my name is Morgensternová and took us inside. We sat and talked about the fire. Suddenly I heard a man's voice behind me. 'Why are you telling her this, why - she is the Jewish woman!'
The parents of Alžběta's father lived in Loštice. "After the First World War, my grandmother worked there as a birth assistant. They had an apartment in the rabbi-house, next to the synagogue. There was also the Jewish school where my father used to go. For me it was more complicated. During the first year I walked from Vlčice to the Loštice school which was directed by Mr. Pokorný. He was very nice to us and often brought us textbooks to our home, so that we wouldn't fall behind. But we couldn't stay in Vlčice after the fire. We moved to Loštice where all seven of us were given only a single room. There we stayed until 1944. One morning, three men came and took away my father and us five children from my mother, telling her that we'll be better off, while she wasn't even able to speak. I know that the man who drove the car was from Žadlovice.
In Prague, they separated us from our father and dealt about our future, because we belonged under the Olomouc section. They kept transferring us from one orphanage to another. It was in contradiction with the Nuremberg laws, because Jewish children under 10 years of age were not to be left without their parents.
Suddenly we were in a transport. I held Pavel, who was a little older than 1 year, in my arms, Marie led our 3-year old brother, who was followed by others. We came to Terezín, where they took Pavel away from me and they separated us. I stayed in the Kinderhouse with Marie. There was a room for about 30 or 40 children, 3 beds stacked on top of each other stood by each wall. There was a long table in the space between. I detested the food there. We were given something half like peeled barley and half like peas. It was very salty and the portions were just enough to keep us alive. In the morning we would get a cup of black coffee, sometimes milk, bread, and sometimes marmalade. I weighed 21 kilograms.
We had a teacher in the Kinderhouse, Miss Hella from Prague. She taught us math, she read with us and she tried to teach us at least to write our own signature. Then, one day, they took us outside to watch her execution. Then I had a friend there, Běla, who was about my age. She went crazy after she was forced to witness the execution of her own father.
There were also good moments to remember. One was the doctor from Bouzov, a Jew, who knew my father. He told my father where we were and he always told me that my brothers were alive. He told me to pretend that he was my father in front of others. I saw him once every month or two weeks. Once I was waiting for him as he told me to, but he didn't come. As a punishment, the German tutors locked me up in the attic. They forgot about me and I fell asleep. Then I cried all through it.
That was just before the end of Terezín, which was the most mysterious time for me and my sister. It was May 5th and there were tanks in the streets. The German women ran away and left us without food for two days. I ran away with Marie. We opened the gate and wanted to go to Loštice. We started across Terezín, we crossed the park to the road, where the "Vlasovci" threw cans to us out of cans. We didn't know what to do with them, so we picked up only biscuits and candy and put them in our skirts. At dusk we didn't want to return to the camp, so we slept on a bench and nobody cared in all the confusion. So we did whatever we wanted for three days, until our father who was returning from Germany, found us. I still think that it was a miracle. He took us to the camp square and found a two-wheeled cart and in the evening, we started our way home. I remember how he threw the Terezín money all around him from joy. We came to Roudnice with fever. My father had to find a doctor, and he was told that we probably had typhus. They took us to the school and washed us in a basin. We spent about six weeks in bed on account of the disease. Around that time, three Germans were hanged in the Roudnice town square. Our father took us there to see the execution.
We didn't get to Loštice until July. We traveled by train, on the roof, because there wasn't any room in the cabins. But, anyway, the train moved at a snail's pace. One woman gave us a cloth doll. When we got home, my sister and I, we had no idea where we were, not until my mother came. Meanwhile, we were searched for in Terezín by the Swiss and Swedish Red Cross.
Our father had a lot of work searching for the rest of my siblings. Three months later he found Peter in Česká Kamenice, then Jarek, who stayed with some people in Olešnice. In 1947 we finally saw Pavel, the youngest, for the first time. Someone brought him from Prague in February. In that year, my father asked the authorities in Brno to change our last name. The Morgensternovi who went through so much trouble became Malinovi and moved to Mohelnice. But even there, after many years, youngsters shouted at a friend of my daughter: 'Don't go with that Jew!'"

Copy of a message from Prague Jewish community to Mrs. Alžběta Dostálová (born Morgensternová, later Malinová) in Mohelnice:

We wish to inform you, that Mr. Julius Morgenstern, born December 16th 1865 and Mrs. Laura Morgensternová born August 10th 1880, their last address - Brno Král. Pole, Purkyňova street 86, were deported by the transport Af-141/142 on March 31st 1942 to Terezín. Mr. Morgenstern was deported on April 25th 1942 in Transport number An-302 from Terezín to Warsaw, Mrs. Morgenstern was deported on April 18th 1942 in number Ag-261 from Terezín to Ostrow. Neither has returned. From January 1st 1941 they had to wear the Jewish star.
Mr. Richard Morgenstern, born on June 21st 1910, prior to deportation lived in Loštice, was interned at the end of the year 1944 in the Hagibor work camp in Prague. On January 31st 1945 he was deported in number AE-1955 to Terezín. He returned after the end of the war. From October 1st 1941 he had to wear the Jewish star.
His children: Alžběta, born October 11th 1936, Jaroslav, born April 25th 1940, Marie, born August 9th 1938, Pavel born August 5th 1943, Petr, born February 7th 1942, their last address in Loštice, were deported March 7th 1945 in transport AE-7-31/32/33/34/35 to Terezín. They returned after the end of the war.

(The publication about the history of Loštice, which was published by the Loštice town hall in 1999, lacks information about the Morgenstern family. Along with the Eckstein family, the list of those who were saved also includes the five Morgenstern children and their father. The children are alive and are the only direct witnesses of the holocaust in Loštice at present.

A LIST OF TRANSPORTS IN THE OLOMOUC REGION

Source: Jewish community in Olomouc

Jews live in Loštice since the year 1554. General information about their presence and activity in the town can be found in a publication of the town hall (Loštice, the town and its inhabitants, 1999). The chapter written by Architect J. Klenovský lists the oldest Jewish sights. The cemetery, today filled with bushes, is one of the oldest in the Czech Republic.

Mr. Miloš Dobrý says: "Originally, there may have been around 300-400 graves. The oldest tombstones come from the 17th century. A family house now stands in the former entrance to the cemetery, the mortuary was taken down and some of the graves are right next to some fruit trees. The Jewish community had a project for the enclosure of the cemetery, but the Conservation Office didn't approve it."
The Jewish community in Loštice had a plan to build a new cemetery on their own parcel in the Žadlovická street. This plan was completely ruined by the Second World War. The place where the tombstones were supposed to be is now an orchard.
The synagogue, which was destroyed by the Nazis, was met by a similar fate following the year 1949. Miloš Dobrý told us that the Jewish community in Olomouc had to sell it, because they lacked money, necessary for the repairs.

"The house was bought by Jílkovi for 91,000 Crowns. In 1957 they sold it to the National Committee (Town Hall, transl. note) in Loštice. Shortly thereafter, the rabbi-house was taken down. Later, the building was repaired to serve as 'Havelkovo Muzeum' and Public School of Arts". A professional firm reinforced the basement and the vaults. The work, however, was not finished. After 1989, Loštice offered to sell the synagogue back to us. We didn't have the capital. I know that our object in Loštice was then offered to the Prague Jewish community and even to the Federation of Jewish Communities. Finally, when a government foundation which looks after Jewish monuments appeared, it put Loštice on a list of towns with Jewish monuments. There is a hope that the synagogue will be repaired. The houses, which belonged to Jews before the war, were plundered immediately after the transport and occupied by Germans. Following 1945, they became property of the Czechoslovakian Authority in Loštice who sold them to applicants in the town."

What is the opinion about all that happened of those who remember and their descendants? 22 of them, we asked these three questions:

- What comes to your mind when you hear the word Holocaust?
- Do you know that citizens of Loštice also perished in it?
- Do you think that our town should recall this sacrifice publicly?

Only two of those we asked couldn't answer the first question. Mere 14 citizens knew the tragic fate of the Jews in Loštice. Three of them (b. 1948, 1955, and 1963) didn't have any information about the local victims, the answers of five others were unclear. The negative answers were given mainly by men and women who were born after the war. They were workers and high school students. Vast majority of answers to the third question was positive. The questioned citizens would like to revive the memory of the holocaust by a memorial and information in the "Hlas Loštic" bulletin and the repair of the Synagogue, which could become a facility for cultural meetings.

The town of Loštice founded the "Synagogue Fund" and has asked voluntary donors for financial contribution in support of preservation of this cultural monument. The foundation publicly announced that it would open an exposition in cooperation with the district Museum of Social Sciences in Šumperk in the first floor of the synagogue immediately, when the repairs are finished. The foundation's leaflet informs us, that the exposition should include "the history of the Jewish community from its beginning in the 16th century under Prokop Podstatský from Prusinovice untill 1942, when local Jews were transported to Terezín and from there to extermination camps". The authors say that the exposition will include original items from Loštice, which are permanently kept by the Jewish museum in Prague and District Social Sciences Museum in Šumperk. So far, the holocaust is commemorated in this town by the Adolf Kašpar Memorial, which displays basic information and photographs tied with local Jewish population.
The condition of the synagogue is really very bad and its repair will not be a simple one. The mayor of Loštice, Mr. Ladislav Škoda shared some more details with us.
"It isn't an easy task. For us it means an investment of 14 million Crowns. The town isn't able to put such a sum together. And, on top, this year has been especially interesting for that matter. We made our intentions public and we obtained the first small donations from the local businessmen. At the beginning of May, the Federation of Jewish communities in Czech Republic has informed us that its presidium has decided to transfer the synagogue under their ownership. We were asked to prepare a draft of the agreement for the transfer. Now we have a letter from the Federation, which brings a clearer solution. The Federation welcomes the use of the synagogue as a cultural space for expositions, concerts and similar activities. What is more important, the Federation will be able now, according to this letter, to receive finances for the reconstruction from the newly founded Fund of Victims of the Holocaust, which is financed by the Fund of National Treasury ruled by the Government and Parliament. According to the letter, the process should be started this autumn. The optimal outcome would be a start of the reconstruction during 2001."
Will Loštice raise funds although the Federation of Jewish communities plans to reconstruct the synagogue?
"I feel that the answer is yes, however, I have to wait for the resolution of the town board. It isn't really possible for us to turn our backs to this cultural monument. Already in September of last year, we were contacted by Synagogue - Memorial Institution in Israel, which would like to help us. Therefore we sent the necessary documents to Israel and now we are waiting for the reply. Of course we will look for more contacts, because every sum spared on a good cause will be welcome. If we manage to bring the project to a successful end, it will at least be a symbolic payback of our debt, which Loštice has towards its Jewish citizens. Unfortunately we don't even know whether any relatives remain in the world at all. That is the second part of our work, which is equally important. Because the people who disappeared, were citizens who felt at home in Loštice. How to return it to them after so much time? Only by a deed of humility, which we all have to try to accomplish together."
Loštice has 3000 inhabitants, a peaceful town square, several memorial plaques on the houses where famous people once lived. The synagogue in the "Ztracená" street is an obscured reminder of the Holocaust, which has yet to enter into our consciousness.
Notes:
The photograph shows the original furnishing of the Loštice synagogue before its plundering by the Nazis. (archive)
Information and interviews concerning the fate of Jews in Loštice were kindly given by: Mr. Miloš Dobrý, the Secretary of Jewish Community in Olomouc, Alžběta Dostálová (born Morgensternová, later Malinová) in Mohelnice, Ctibor Lolek in Zábřeh, Anna Pazderová (born Doubravská), Mr. Ladislav Škod and the 22 participants of the survey in Loštice.
The historical photograph of Loštice synagogue is taken from the publication "Loštice, The town and its Population" (published 1999), as is the photo of the store of Otto Loff and the photo of the gas pump with Kurt Wischnitzer. The photo of Greta Eckstein comes from the publication of J. Weisler "Community of Crafts in Loštice 1878 - 1948" (published 1999).
Loštice lies in the southern part of the Šumperk district and touches the Olomouc district. It has 3000 inhabitants.

DISAPPEARED NEIGHBORS. The end of the Jewish community in Loštice. Research and learning project for the Educational and Cultural Center of the Jewish Museum in Prague. It was completed in May and June 2000 by the Loštice Elementary School (students of 9.A class Veronika Náplavová, Nina Koudelková, Terezie Taťounová and teacher Frantiěek Kobza). Historical documentation was borrowed from the Adolf Kašpar Memorial in Loštice, other photos - archive and Nina Koudelková. Graphical arrangement: Petr Fialek.