“Golešov was the name of the place where he got blood poisoning, he died there from blood poisoning.” (Q: “How did you find out how your husband died?”) “One of his friend’s wrote it to me. He said that he had been working with some machines and that he got blood poisoning; he didn’t get any help, so he died from it.”
“The master we worked under was quite decent. He came to me, tapped me on the shoulder and said in German: ‘Do you understand a little German?’ I said: ‘I understand a little.’ And he said: ‘You know, we aren’t for Hitler, just so you know, we want him gone as well.’ ”
“We had one girl there who was expecting a family, and the little boy was born on the 7th of March, they named him Tomáš. The Aufseherin was decent, she brought some babywear and told the girl: ‘Here you go, this is so your baby can live.’ ”
“Suddenly, we’re looking out of the window - we were locked up downstairs. Suddenly, we’re looking out of the window and the one standing next to me says: ‘Look, what’s that over there?’ And I say: ‘That’s a Russian soldier boy.’ So they opened the gates and said: ‘Okay, girls,’ they spoke Russian, ‘you can go to the shop, and anything you find handy, you can keep it, all of it.’ ”
Ruth Bejkovská, née Kleinová, was born on the 11th of June 1920 in Olomouc, but she spent her childhood in Uherský Brod. Her father had a building company, her mother helped in the office. The family was of Jewish descent, but did not keep the religious traditions. Ruth and her father ended up in the Terezín ghetto in 1943 (her mother died from a heart attack before they left). There she worked as a cleaning lady. She married Arnošt Smolinský, but he did not survive to the end of the war. Her father died in Auschwitz. In October 1944, Ruth was transferred to Auschwitz, where she spent ten days. She was then taken to the camp in Merzdorf, where she worked in a weaving mill. Merzdorf was liberated by the Red Army in 1945. Ruth Kleinová returned to Czechoslovakia, spending two months in the hospital in Zlín. She then found a job in Rumburk, where she met her future husband and veteran of the Western Front, Bedřich Bejkovský. They married and settled down in Prague. She died on 21.6.2013 in Prague.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
