The Story of a Quiet Woman

Filip Neumann (born on 4th March, 1878) had ten children. He lived with his family in today´s 16, Matěj Kuděj Street. The house was owned by the director of the Economic Savings Bank, Mr. Dvořík, who was called the mayor of Záhradí. Mrs. Berta Neumannová (born in 1878) maybe worked as a housemaid at the Dvořáks´ because the Neumanns were very poor. One of the Neumanns´sons - Adolf (born on 9th February, 1918) was employed by the Tošovský family, who had a gas station next to today´s Commercial Bank in Smetana Square. The Tošovský family traded in cheese. They maybe made it, but most probably it was sent to them from somewhere else. Adolf, called Áda, had a bicycle, which the eyewitnesses describe as really old. They say that it looked terrible even back then. Áda would put the cheese in a wooden box or crate on the back of his bicycle and he would deliver the cheese to villages, shops and pubs. Berta Neumannová died in 1939 and Filip Neumann was forced to leave Litomyšl on 3rd December 1942, together with his son, Adolf, and the other members of his family: Marie (born on 10th January, 1905), Vlasta (born on 25th November, 1907), Josef (born on 24th October, 1908), Karolína (born on 25th May, 1913), and Jarmila (born on 25th August, 1920). Filip, Josef, Jarmila, and Karolína were deported to Auschwitz on 20th January, 1943 and Adolf and Vlasta on 15th December, 1943. None of them survived. Besides these names, we also know others - Karel, Zdena and Markéta. These were probably the other children in the family but they are not mentioned in the database of the holocaust victims kept by the Jewish Museum in Prague.

Antonie Neumannová, whose married name was Turečková, was born on 30th March, 1910, in Litomyšl, to Filip and Berta Neumann. She trained to be a dressmaker. She was deported to the ghetto in Terezín in AE-1 transport on 31st January, 1945. This was one of the means by which Jewish partners from mixed marriages were deported. First, they were rounded up in Prague. Antonie´s one-year-old son. Petřík. was taken away from her there. Antonie was set free from Terezín. Returning home, she took her son back with her to Litomyšl illegally. Later, she gave birth to her daughter, Marie. We did not manage to find out anything about the circumstances of her marriage.

She was a friend of Marta Soukupová, Valerie Bubeníčková, Marie Vacková and Mrs. Flídrová. All of them often went for trips to the Black Mountain in Litomyšl.

In January 1956, Antonie started work at the 01 plant of the Vertex National Corporation, where she stayed until her retirement on 1st December, 1969. Her colleague from work, Milena Jeništová, knew her as a well-built woman, about 160 cm tall. From her we also know that Mrs. Turečková was an excellent cook and that she liked baking buns, which she brought to work for her colleagues to try. They often asked her for recipes. Mrs. Jeništová says her friend was reliable and popular, but at the same time a bit strange. She did not talk much and was always complaining about the cold. She liked reading novels and books about the lives of Jews. She used to go to the cemetery to the grave with the inscription "Berta Neumann and her grand daughter Liduška" to put stones on it. Liduška had died in 1942. It is possible that she was Mrs. Tureček´s daughter.

Antonie never missed an excursion organized by the company (or the trade union). A lot of photos were taken at that time. She was also a member of the Antifascist Campaigners Association.

Her daughter, Marie, got married and moved to Prague and her son, Peter, got married and today lives somewhere in the Jeseníky Mountains.

Antonie Turečková died on 16th April, 1992.

Tereza Jandáčková and Markéta Zrůbková