“Since I didn’t wear the Star of David, I was able to go out in the evenings. Normally Jews had to be at home at eight o’clock. I was thus able to buy things which were otherwise not available… My mom was sent to Terezín. I stayed alone in Prague and I worked in a bookbindery. (…) I didn’t board any transport. After the war I went to Terezín. I brought my mom to the apartment where I stayed with my aunt. (...) One year after the end of the war we decided to go to Palestine. I went together with a group which went illegally to France, we spent about a month there and then we went to Palestine by an illegal transport.”
“In Terezín they allowed them to send stamps and I could then send them a package using these stamps. I had to glue the stamps to the package… I was also sending packages to people I didn’t know. Whenever I received a stamp, I sent a package.”
“There were only three of us who remained in Prague. This Heinzek Prossnitz, my friend Elka and I. I dated him until he was sent to the concentration camp. He left with the last transport, because his father had some important job in the Jewish community. There were no other young people left. All of them were already gone. Heinzek remained as the last one. He left in October 1944 in the last transport. He has not come back. I will never forget it for as long as I am alive: the day when Heinzek left with the transport.”
Edith Rosen, née Březinová, was born November 18, 1926 in Kadaň. Her mother was a Jew, but her father, a distillery owner, was not of Jewish origin. After her parents’ divorce Edith lived in Karlovy Vary only with her mother. Although no religious traditions were observed at home and officially she did not have any religion, her mother raised her in the spirit of Zionism. Edith was a member of the Zionist youth movement Tchelet lavan both in Karlovy Vary and in Prague, where she moved with her mother after the takeover of the Sudetenland border region at the beginning of the war. As a member of the Zionist youth movement in Prague, she was helping Jews during transports to Terezín and other camps. She also became a close friend and co-worker of Jewish activist Heinz Prossnitz, a student who was illegally sending packages with food to Jews interned in Terezín and other concentration camps. Together with his friends, including Edith Březinová, Prossnitz has managed to send nine tons of food to hungry Jews in the camps during the war. After his deportation to concentration camp in October 1944, Edith continued with this activity alone. She was only half-Jewish, and she thus avoided the persecution, unlike her mother, who was transported to the Terezín ghetto. In 1946 she and her mother emigrated via France to (present-day) Israel. She lived in a kibbutz and then settled in Kfar Saba.
With friends from the Zionist movement. From the left: Zleva: Eva Schweitzer (has not returned from concentration camp), Margit Zantner (survived), Alisa Fauská-Schiller (survived), Edita Březinová
With friends from the Zionist movement. From the left: Zleva: Eva Schweitzer (has not returned from concentration camp), Margit Zantner (survived), Alisa Fauská-Schiller (survived), Edita Březinová
Aunt (Edith's father's sister) Marie Tanzer. She took care of Edita during the war. She was of German origin, and has not survived the turmoil during the Prague uprising in May 1945, probably beaten to death
Aunt (Edith's father's sister) Marie Tanzer. She took care of Edita during the war. She was of German origin, and has not survived the turmoil during the Prague uprising in May 1945, probably beaten to death
