Lisa Miková

„Vy jste se s manželem seznámili už před válkou? – My jsme se seznámili v Terezíně. – Vy jste se vdávala v Terezíně? – Poprvé ano. – Jaká ta svatba byla? – Dojemná, velmi. – Mohla byste ji popsat? – Nerada. – To byla první svatba. A druhá? – Druhá byla v Praze. – Když jste se sešli s manželem. – Protože ta první byla neplatná. Tak byla druhá. – Ta druhá byla veselejší? – Ta byla veselejší, rozhodně.“

„Vy jste potom museli do Terezína. – Ano. – Věděli jste, co Terezín je? – Vlastně ne. Nevěděli. – Vybavujete si, jak probíhalo, když jste dostali příkaz tam jet? Balili jste? – Balili jsme. Dohadovali jsme se s maminkou, co je důležité na oblečení a co není. Hlavně šlo o oblečení, co je důležité a co ne.“

„Říkala jste, že jste měli obavy z toho, co se děje v Německu. Nepřemýšleli rodiče o tom, že se vystěhují z Československa? – Mluvilo se o tom hodně, samozřejmě. My jsme dokonce byli předtím, zrovna, ve Švýcarech. Byli jsme ve stejném hotelu, čirou náhodou, kde byli… už nevím, kdo. Ti řekli: ´To jste byli moudří, to jste udělali dobře.´ Ale maminka řekla: ´Jak dobře?´ ´Že jste sem jeli a že tu zůstanete.´ Maminka řekla: ´Ani náhodou tady nezůstaneme.´ - Takže jste se vrátili. – My jsme se vrátili, všichni byli strašně udivení, že jsme se vrátili, ale my jsme se vážně vrátili v září 1938.“

“In February we experienced the air raids on Dresden. Freiberg is about thirty-five kilometres from Dresden. There were alarms, sometimes an air raid alarm would sound, but that did not mean anything, but now the sirens were sounding incessantly. The foremen and SS women were running around like crazy. They led us into one large hall in the factory, locked us inside and they themselves went to shelters. And they were shouting at us that we were not supposed to approach the windows: ´Don’t go to the windows. No, no.´ Of course we went there and we saw the groups of bomber planes. ´Christ, they are American or English. If only they could liberate us.´ They bombed Dresden completely, but I can tell you, we didn’t care a bit.”

“We were meeting together, and all of a sudden I was among the Jewish youth, which was actually something I had not been originally accustomed to, but the fate has just brought us together this way. There was nothing else left for us, anyway. We were going to Hagibor, where was the only sports stadium which was allowed for the Jews. We were not allowed into any park or garden. And so I began going there, too, because they were playing volleyball there, sitting and talking, and doing exercises. At least I had something.”

“As soon as the train stopped, they entered the trains – we rode a regular train. They spoke Polish and they said: ´All the luggage will remain in the train. Get off the train.´ They said it quite loudly and then they began whispering to us: ´You are healthy, you can work, but you cannot save the children anyway.´ We were asking them: ´Where are we?´ They said: ´In Auschwitz.´ While we were still on the train, we saw huge chimneys, and we thought: ´Those are the factories where we will work.´”

“I was in Zagreb with a friend of mine. I wouldn’t have gone there by myself, but she was supposed to go back. England was arranged only for me. One day, my relative, she was a cousin of my father’s, told me: ´There was a phone call from the English consulate, some gentleman will come for you within a week and you will go to England with him.´ It was a shock for me, and I really did say: ´That’s strange, my parents wrote to me just now that everything is back to normal again…´ – that was in October – ´and told me to come back home.´ I lied.”

“We spent the obligatory three nights in the Trade Fair Palace, and we experienced the first horrors there. We departed in the morning on January 30, in rows of five. Our group was still leaving on a regular passenger train. We rode to Bohušovice, because it was the closest railway station to Terezín. There we were told to get off the train. It was in winter, snow, there were SS men and policemen. Older people were taken onto a cargo wagon, and we pulled them to Terezín.”