Eva Křivánková

* 1939

  • "The man, who organized it, didn't think through it. He confirmed, he sent an attendance list. It is clear to you what the attendance list is. Each participant in that meeting signs. So, the Gestapo got this in their hands, and then they arrested them, they just walked a house by house and a village by village. They picked up four people from Poplze, about three in Dubany, and about six in Evan. The most of them were from Libochovice. They took them to a large railway station. There was parked, today we would say a wagon of an electric locomotive, of an electric train, and there they led them one by one, and at that time about fifty of them were arrested."

  • "Only at the end of the fence, if you have an idea of where the Mills on the river Ohře behind Terezín begin, if any of you know a little bit, the fence actually ended there in those places, so maybe it was not so strong or how, there were just cracks in it. Such cracks between the individual boards, and maybe also some holes from the knots or whatever it was. In short, I looked there curiously, wondering what kind of children there were, and I said, 'Mom, who is it? Why are they there?' And my mother took my hand, pulled me away quickly, and said, 'Be quiet, quiet, quiet and come on.' So, this is something I remember. I don't know how many times I've asked like that, probably not anymore. "

  • "My uncle met there by chance or looked for him intentionally, I don't know how it was, a Jewish doctor to whom he used to go to Prague for a treatment. And he asked my uncle if he would send some letters he had prepared, so my uncle, of course, he would not refuse his doctor. Neither did it occur to him that it would be dangerous in any way, even though it was already known at the time that, for cooperation with the Jews, it would be a concentration camp, at least, so my uncle sent it. Well, and it happened, after a while it came to light, I don't know how, whether those who were the addressees of those letters boasted about it, or what. It just came to light and my uncle was picked up by the Gestapo and he was imprisoned in a prison in Germany."

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    Velemín , 19.02.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 01:04:58
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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I watched the children in Terezín through the cracks in the fence

Eva in her childhood
Eva in her childhood
photo: archive of the witness

Eva Křivánková, née Henychová, was born on November 27, 1939 in Poplzy near Libochovice. She and her mother walked along the Terezín fortress, and she remembers watching Jewish children through cracks in the fence. During the war, her mother’s uncle, who worked as a railway worker in Bohušovice, was arrested for sending letters belonging to a Jewish acquaintance. Her uncle returned from the prison in Germany. During the Heydrichiade on July 1, 1942, the Nazis executed Eva’s cousin Jaroslav Kotouč, who collaborated with the Libochovice unit of the Defense of the Nation. Eva graduated in teaching and in 1958 entered a school in Velemín, where she taught all her life. Here she married Josef Křivánek, with whom she had two children.