PLZEŇ, High School

Spolužáci

The Classmates (Spolužáci) project originated within the framework of the literary course at Gymnázium Plzeň - a facultative course for pre-graduate and graduate students lead by Mgr Monika Stehlíková. Their aim was to find out as much as possible about former students from their school (the then IInd Czechoslovak State Realschule), who were branded Jews by the Nuremberg laws and subsequently excluded from their studies and further persecuted. The first group, which set about their work in 2002, found three students, who died in the camps in the east. We (students from the following grade) found nine more, out of whom seven lived to see the end of the War. The search for twelve various life stories took us two years. Our work consisted mainly of investigating the archives and questioning classmates and relatives of the afflicted students. We contacted some survivors, if the circumstances allowed. In the mid 2004 we placed a memorial plaque in the school lobby, commemorating lives of the deceased students. The project proceeded until autumn 2005, when we summarized its outcomes in a publication of the same name, which has recently seen its re-edition. Some of the copies are used in Pilsen high schools as a supplementary teaching material.

At the turn of 2004 and 2005 we published a leaflet presenting the aims of our project. At that time, we still hadn't found our twentieth student. Hana Porgesová, as we discovered, studied at the first grade of the Realschule in 1934. In 1942 she perished together with the rest of her family in an unknown transport, which was probably heading to Sobibor. Some of the students attended the same class in the Realschule. Charlotte Epstein stayed the longest. She was banned from school as a "half-Jew" only in 1943. Another two students, Charlotte's brother Arnošt and Mirko Lauterstein were also from a mixed marriage. As men they were interned in work camps with relatively favourable conditions. Majority of the remaining students were deported to Terezín in January 1942 in one of the three Pilsen transports. Egon Löbner, Hanuš Deiml and Hanuš Löw were liberated at the end of the War in Poland and Germany; Hana Fantová, Emil Ehrlich and Jiří Stein perished in the extermination camps (Izbica, Auschwitz, Raasiku). Another probable victim of the Holocaust was Jiří Schanzer, who participated in the partisan resistance. He was caught on Hungarian borders and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Our last student, Eva Brummel, was saved thanks to the transport despatched by Nicolas Winton. Her family, just like the overwhelming majority of the twelve students' relatives, died during Shoa.

At this point we would once again like to express our thanks to the people and their families who assisted us in investigating the impact of Holocaust on lives of individual young people or their relatives: Eva Brummelová-Nelsonová, Michal Brummel, Kateřina and Elon Deimel, Charlotta Epstein, Hanuš Lamač, Dagmar and Jitka Lánská, Mindy, Gary and Ben Loebner and their families and Milan Plešák. We also wish to thank other people and institutions for their invaluable help.

For technical reasons we cannot present all of our stories, but you can find details on our website www.humr.wz.cz, where you can also order our publication Spolužáci/The Classmates.

Eva Brummelová - investigation

We found out that Eva attended our school in the IV. B. class catalogue. The 1937/38 school annual report mentioned that the class was attended by three pupils of "Moses religion" (we later discovered that another two students, whose lives were affected by Shoa, attended the same class). The annual school report or yearbook was available at the Gymnázium, but the class catalogues had to be found in the municipal archive. We searched according to school (which had taken on several names), school year and "religion", which was still taught in the 1930s, even though only as a facultative subject. Eva's class report stated her date of birth, her father's name and profession and their address at that time. We also wrote down the data of Eva's classmates, presuming that some of them could be still living at the same address, and we later tried to get in touch. We haven't found neither Eva nor any of her possible relatives among the people included in the three Terezín transports. However, we found Leo Brummel, Eva's father, on the list of people transported from Prague (July 1943) and according to the transport numbers we identified her mother Getruda Brummelová and sister Eliška ("Lilka"), who was three years younger than Eva. The fact that the family was transported relatively late, when the transports to Terezín were already under way for nearly half a year, suggested their link with the Jewish community (this assumption was later confirmed). Most of the families that were able to avoid transports for longer because of their work at the community were sent eastwards immediately after reaching Terezín. According to the Terezín memorial book Eva's family perished in Auschwitz, where they were deported on 6 September 1943 (transport to the so-called Terezín family camp). We are not quite sure whether it was Eva's schoolmates or the Jewish Community in Prague who suggested that Eva possibly left for Great Britain in August 1939 on the rescue ship dispatched by Sir Nicolas Winton. By the way, it was the last of the so-called "kindertransports", or children transports: shortly after the Second World War started. In a slightly complicated way - via the British Embassy and via Mrs Věra Gissing, who organizes "Winton's children" meetings - we gradually got hold of Eva's address (her current surname is Nelson) Meanwhile we interrogated some of her classmates, who gave us photos and described the circumstances of Eva's departure from school. We knew that she left before she could be expelled on the basis of the Nuremberg. Just like many of her classmates, both of Jewish and non-Jewish origin, Eva transferred in 1938 to a more practical school, in her case a business school. Her classmates also told us that after the transfer she started preparing for a journey to England and attended language courses. We discovered in the State regional archive (apart from finding more information about some distant relatives) that Eva's father was a co-owner of a tannery called Brummel, Bloch and Waldstein (we already knew from the class report that he was a factory-owner). Thanks to this information we traced out some old newspaper adverts of the factory, whose remains can be still seen near the Výstaviště exhibition grounds. It is quite funny that the engraving depicting the factory exaggerates the size of its premises: the perspective does not match today's remains:). For a long time we believed that the Brummel family lived in a family house on Klatovská třída. One such house of the same number (n. 100) is still standing there. However, the houses have been re-numbered (their address would nowadays be at number 140). We found quite a lot of information about the Brummel family flat. No wonder, since some of its rooms were designed by Adolf Loos. Some half a year before contacting Michal Brummel, Eva's Prague-based cousin, we got his address from one of the survivors in Pilsen. We didn't pay much attention to it, since we found no such person among the names in the archives. Several months later we discovered some interesting links: another survivor from Pilsen, Mrs Bělohlávková, drew our attention to an article about the legacy of Adolf Loos published in an architecture magazine. According to the article one of his buildings preserved to date was the site of a Pilsen Radio Station, owned by a person called Michael Brummel. Since we couldn't find his name in the Yellow pages, we left him a message at the station. It turned out that he was (Michal) Kurt Brummel whom we knew from the archive documents. Now it was also clear who was taking care of the Brummel family gravestone at the Pilsen Jewish cemetery. Virtually at the same time, or perhaps a bit earlier, we received Eva's address from the British Embassy. We knew from her close friends, mostly her former classmates, whom we had contacted by that time that she was not in good health. Even though she has been visiting the Czech Republic regularly until recently (last time the Classmates project was already in progress), it was now difficult to communicate even by letters. We therefore turned to Mr Brummel whom we had already met several times and who provided us with a number of personal documents. Thanks to him we were able to reconstruct in greater detail the war histories of Brummel family members.

Eva's story

The Brummel family came to Pilsen from the region of Rakovník. Some of their distant relatives have settled in the Klatovy region. Father Leo took over the grandfather's tannery after returning from Russian captivity where he had spent major part of the First World War. He and his brother married two sisters. Apart from brother Jan, Eva's father also had a sister called Markéta, who also died during the liquidation of the Terezín family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and brother Kurt, father of Michal K. Brummel, who died in 1933 before his son was born. The family befriended architect Loos and his wife Claire Beck. The girls also made friends with their nanny Beta. Many of Eva's friends remember the time spent together - usually at the Brummel house, with a huge swing, piano and Mrs Brummel's ballmasks, at other time with her auntie, who lived in a flat roofed house ideal for "sunbathing", where they could listen to old records. They also recall the times when Eva already left for England: "[...] If I remember correctly, her father was here for a long time. I used to see him clearing snow at the station. At times when they were obliged to wear the star, Lilka had a friend called Honzina. She was from a poor family and the Brummel family used to support her. When Lilka couldn't go to shops anymore, Honzina would do the shopping and bring it to Mrs Brummel." (Mrs Jarmila Bartůňková-Kreysová, classmate) The girls' parents considered for a long time the possibility of sending the girls to England within the operation organized by Nicolas Winton. In the end they let the girls decide for themselves. Eva wanted to leave, but younger Lilka refused and so had to bear the fate of other Jewish children. Upon her arrival in England, Eva wrote a letter to her family, describing in great detail the journey in one of the last rescue transports despatched by Mr Winton (transcription of the letter with no editorial amendments): "Dear all! You must have certainly received my telegraph by now, sent by Mr Pamment as soon as I arrived and therefore you know that I had a safe journey. I am very happy and Beckenham is so divinely beautiful you can hardly imagine. I will recount my impressions and everything that happened so far. We left Prague after a long delay and the children were very tired. Mom, I took of my shoes immediately, just as you have told me. In our compartment were these children (I was supposed to look after them which I did; a very nice girl helped me, a Russian called Taťána Bogosová): 5-year-old Renata Kressová, 9-year old Lia Blumová, and then little Rita Hackerová from Pilsen, who joined us as soon as we left Prague. Then two girls, about 12-year-old, but one of them didn't belong to our compartment and only came to visit. And then Táňa and me; that's enough, isn't it? First we arranged everything and then we put the 3 smaller children up. We would nod off sitting up, but we didn't sleep. Rita screamed for about half an hour, but then she fell asleep and slept for a long time. This way we reached Terezín on the Czech-German borderline. We stood there for 4 hours, because the woman who went with us forgot the tickets in Prague. [...] [...] Holland is very beautiful. It is so clean everywhere than we didn't dare to litter the beauty by throwing paper from the window. Large meadows everywhere, scattered with black or brown and white cows and calves. I only saw about three windmills. You can see houses resembling building sets (even in towns) and you hardly see people walking. Everyone is riding bikes, but not in the hunched position and not as fast as they do at home. Straight and slow, very slow, with no hurry - in Holland everybody seems to have lots of time on their hands. Life must be beautiful here in the neat houses with cute little curtains and gardens full of flowers. At around 11 we reached Rotterdam. This was the last time we saw our rucksacks before arriving in London. We left them on the train and they loaded them on the ship and looked after them all the way to London. Then we walked to the port; it was a horrible journey. It was dark and raining and we had to carry Rita and look after the others. But after about ten minutes we boarded the ship. We got a cabin (at the very bottom of the ship, but they were quite decent, except for the noise of the engine). [...] [...] I slept till quarter to six, when one of the navy men woke us up and shouted "come on!" I got angry and told him we couldn't go anywhere in our nightgowns, still sleepy, with our eyes still gummed up. I hope he understood my broken English. There was a terrible "mess" on the ship. I was taking Rita to breakfast and was shoving my way through the people, who were bumping into me as if they were blind. I met some poor "old lady" dragging two suitcases and about twenty other things (at least) on the deck. I offered her a hand and she blessed me and grumbled about the unwilling people. Then I desperately searched for Rita, or at least for the stain that remained after she was trampled. Luckily I found the whole of her and brought her to a long table, surrounded by loads of children and covered with cups of hot tea, bread and butter, apples and bananas. We had something to eat and went to the deck. Oh, I forgot to tell you that nobody was seasick. Together with Táňa we seated the children on the deck, wrapped them up and then walked around the ship, talked to the sailors, stewards and waiters, watched the sea and the sea-gulls and it was amazing. We soon landed in Harwick. Then we passed the medical check-up while being filmed by a young American woman and an Englisman, probably for the weekly news. [...] (...] We were very hungry but we didn't have our rucksacks. We ate up the leftovers from breakfast. Then we walked the deck with Táňa and watched the crane lifting bags of potatoes and placing them on the ground. At about 1'clock we lined up in pairs and received bread and marmalade. We got on the third class, but very luxurious train. We travelled for two hours. Táňa and I washed the children and soon after we arrived at Liverpoolstreet Station. Some children were already awaited, but we couldn't go anywhere. They lead us to a large gym full of chairs. We sat there for a very long time. Our future "parents" sat next door. It took a very long time before we were divided. My turn came about half way through - Mr Pamment was already standing by the door, signing some papers. I spotted Gusti Fantl. I talked to him for a while and greeted him from Mrs. Doktorová Fantlová. He was probably waiting for Robert, but he didn't come with us to London. He was assigned to some special group that stayed in Harwick. (Perhaps the Fantls' will be interested in hearing this) Aunt Marianne was waiting in the next room. Then we came out and looked for my luggage. They told us I could only pick it up on the following day. I went to wash myself a little and got ready to get going. Mr Pamment gave me 6 d. Then we looked for a "tea - room", but it was Saturday afternoon and everything was closed. I can make myself understood well with the Pamments. They are all very kind and their two children are cute. I think you could buy Eric a car from Růžička, the one that cannot fall off the table and then perhaps an airplane. [...] (...] I already spoke to Zuzi on the phone and she was very surprised that Lili didn't want to come. She said she was silly. But home is best, isn't it so, Lili? [...] [...] Many, many, many kisses to all of you and to everybody I know and to Růženka from Eva. Eva and her family in Pilsen kept exchanging postcards after the outbreak of war via the International Red Cross. Right after the outbreak of War, the Pamment family moved to the countryside and sent Eva to an old aunt living close by. Eva had no opportunity of further education. The Otte couple, friends of Eva's parents who immigrated to England some time earlier, put her up in their place in Birmingham already in 1939. Until 1941 she studied externally at London University and also learned English stenography and typewriting. She moved to Bristol, where she could work at a doctor's office and in the hospital laboratory. Her parents and sister Lilka could stay in Pilsen longer that the rest of the family and they were transported to Terezín as late as 5 July 1943. They were moved out of their flat. From that time we have the testimony of Lilka's friend Karl Kumpera, who was a regular visitor with the Brummels: "[...] He (Mr Brummel) was very sociable, always in good mood, always making jokes." Karel Kumpera together with his like-minded Czech friends organized food collections and dispatched them to Terezín from the designated Pilsen post-office, taught children that remained in Pilsen and were not allowed to attend school and met young people, even in places appointed for Jews (for example at the "Jewish lake"). Just after two months in Terezín, on 6 September 1943, Eva's parents with Lilka were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, to the so-called Terezín family camp. Hana Sachselová, who survived Auschwitz with her sister and married Karel Kumpera after the war, talks remembers meeting the Brummel family: "We spent three months with them in Auschwitz but they suffered a different fate than we did. Mr Brummel visited my mother and gave her valuable advice. When the family camp was abolished, they were sent to gas chambers. It was on Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk's s birthday and supposedly the prisoners sang the Czech national anthem. Leo Brummel told Mrs Sachsel's mother that no one could survive in Auschwitz for more than six months. Indeed, On 8 March 1944, Leo, Truda, Lilka and Aunt Markéta (who selflessly cared for the children in the family camp) perished in what was the largest mass murder of Czechoslovak citizens during the Second World War. Uncle Jan was sent from Auschwitz to a concentration camp in Friedland, Silesia, where he lived to see the liberation by the Red Army; his wife Jana escaped from the Death March in 1945 and survived as well. Upon her arrival in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 7 September 1943, Truda was allowed to send a message to Pilsen, where she mentioned that she was together with Lilka. On the eve of the liquidation of the Terezín family camp the prisoners were allowed to send postcards, which had to be dated about a month later. Aunt Markéta wrote to Valerie Brummel, her sister-in-law in Pilsen, a postcard marked with the prescribed date of 15 April 1944: "Dearest all! I am healthy and hope you are too. I expect good news. Join me in prayer, visit the church regularly, especially during Easter. Don't forget me, remember your grateful Tita." ("Tita" was a family nickname for Markéta, children's version of the word aunt - teta. The postcards had to be written in German.) ! After the end of the war the remaining relatives wanted Eva to return and study medicine, in which she was interested already in England. She returned in summer 1947 and then for her uncle Jan's burial in 1960. After the war she was concerned that the British authorities wouldn't let her return and after 1948 there was a danger that the Czechoslovak authorities wouldn't let her leave (even though she already had a British passport). During the whole post-war period Eva exchanged letters with her relatives in Pilsen and roughly since 1970 she regularly visited Czechoslovakia. In 1955 she married Michael Brian Nelson from Bristol. Her older daughter Susan (born in 1958) also lives in Bristol. Gillian (born 1959) has settled in Sean Worthing in west Texas. Eva Brummel has altogether four grandchildren: Richard (1987), Kiera (1989), Adam (1990) and Chloe (1994) - they are mostly studying or finishing high school.

Garden of memories - memorial to the Holocaust victims from the Pilsen region

The year 2002 was declared in Pilsen the Year of remembering the Holocaust victims. Between 16 and 19 April the Old Synagogue hosted the event entitled "Write down a name" ("Napiš jedno jméno") Volunteers from among the Pilsen residents, mainly high-school students, came to the synagogue and wrote the victims' names on pebbles. Each volunteer wrote one name with date of birth on a pebble. The pebbles were placed on premises of the former neighbouring synagogue, the so-called Jewish School. Gradually a pious memorial was created: the number of participants was close to the number of recorded names. The author of the idea and chief organizer of the event was Radovan Kodera from the national institute for the protection and conservation of monuments and sites in Pilsen.