Hedvika Kupcová

„The end was coming close, and people were running away. And now the brothers, the older ones, ran away home to Prague. The brother, who was a year older than me, he stayed there and said: ‚Hey, there will be trains to Prague to carry people from here, just wait and see.‘ And he ran away too. So I went along with some friends, it was not guarded anymore as before, when the officers were guarding us. But someone had to be there as the officers stayed in, as there was the typhus epidemic and it was not supposed to get out so no one was allowed to go. So we secretly left, when they were arriving with loading trucks bringing some necessities lacking in the camp. There were always many people asking to hide in the trucks so that the officers would not stop them. And that was our plan with my friend. ‚Lets do it, lets go too.‘ So we asked a single truck driver to take us. ‚Yeah, sure.‘ So we were hiding in a loading truck to drive us back to Prague. And back there I already knew how to get home. So I came back home, my mum was surprised, everyone was happy. Boys were already there, they ran sooner. Only my father could not go. He was old and could not just get on a loading truck. And they said that the transports will gradually bring the elderly, so he waited for his turn. Then he came to Prague too. So we all gathered in the end, there was much joy.”

“Back then my mum worked in the cinema in Příkopy. And it was a completely new cinema, quite luxurious, the seats and everything was nice there. And we could go to see her and sometimes watch movies. Those were the most recent movies. One of our relatives was the owner of the cinema, but of course he lost everything due to his Jewish religion. They left right at the beginning as the war started, they managed to pack it up and left for America, simply far away. And we did not have that opportunity so we stayed in Prague.”