I do not indulge in memories, I live for the present and the future
Magda Barnea was born in Brno in 1925 as Magda Kappová. She came from a Zionist family, her father was a dentist. In April 1942 she and her parents were taken to the ghetto in Terezín in the transport Ah. She did agricultural work while staying in the ghetto. In September 1944 she was deported to Auschwitz, and after several weeks she was taken from there to Bergen-Belsen. Several weeks later, probably in November 1944, she was sent to a factory in Raguhn in East Germany. In spring 1945 she arrived back to Terezín in an evacuation transport, and she experienced the liberation there. After the war she was sent for a convalescence stay to Slovakia and Switzerland, and then she returned back to her studies which had been interrupted by the war. Shortly after February 1948 she crossed the border to Austria using forged documents which the Zionist movement provided for her. In summer 1949 she arrived to the recently established State of Israel. She married Jan Bramer, who likewise came from Moravia and who adopted the name Dov Barnea after his emigration. Magda Barnea worked in education while living in Israel, and she specialised in teaching children with adaptability difficulties. As a retiree, she now volunteers in museums and archaeology. Magda Barnea lives in Omer near Beersheba.
