Eva Krupičková

* 1927

  • "Now the Soviet soldiers told us that the French would give us a lift on trucks to Karlovy Vary. They really did, but we were just 175 out of 3500. I cannot remember now the best hotel in Karlovy Vary." "Pupp?" "No, it was a different one, it was... I remembered the name for a long time, it will come back to me later. The Russians housed us in that hotel for two weeks and they cared very well for us. They gave us food, they brought us new clothes so we could get rid of our gray camp uniforms, I could pick some shoes and so on so forth..."

  • "Well, I said let's go there girls, we‘ll see if the Americans will liberate us. Well the girls didn't speak any English because they were collected from all over the country. So we arrived there and the Americans looked at us. We were bald because they had shaved our heads to prevent the spreading of lice. The American soldiers and officers were looking at us not understanding who or what we were. He said: 'do you speak English'? So I replied that I do speak English. And he said: 'what are you'? Who are you? Why don't you have any hair? Well, I told him we were prisoners, that we were arrested because we are Jews and the Germans put us in camps."

  • "My brother went to the train station to wait for me to come. He eagerly looked in every train that arrived at the station hoping I was there. As soon as my train arrived at the station, I saw my brother on the platform. I had a lot of presents for him, clothes, shoes, etc., that I had gotten from the Russians, but when I saw him from the window looking for me, I forgot about all the packages. I simply left them in the train and jumped out to embrace him. Well, it's impossible to describe the joy I felt when we reunited – two members of the same family. At that time, we already knew that our parents were gone. Well, it was a wonderful joy, but we could no longer return to our apartment in Uzhhorod because it was occupied by the Russians. They took everything they could from it."

  • "You've mentioned an SS man, whom you tried to 'humanize' by singing." "Oh, lass das sein, Otto, lass das sein, deine Schläge, Otto, .... bis-ein - he would beat us, he would beat young girls. When something happened – for instance we forgot to do something, he would beat us up with a stick. And when he was in a good mood, we were singing to him - we don't mind you beating us. But we went with him to the end."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha, 30.04.2012

    (audio)
    duration: 01:59:57
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

Revenge wouldn’t bring my parents or the other innocent victims back to life and the rest no longer matters.

Výřez s bratrem003.jpg (historic)
Eva Krupičková
photo: Foto Karel Kužel (zpracovatel)

  Mrs. Eva Krupičková was born on January 1, 1927, in Uzhhorod as the last offspring (out of six siblings) in the Wolf family. Her oldest brother died before the war, two of her sisters and one brother fled at the last moment to England. In 1944, Eva, her parents and her youngest brother were taken to Auschwitz. Her parents were sent to the gas chambers and the children were sent to a forced labor camp. After six weeks in the camp, Eva was deported to Gelsenkirchen to help with clear debris in the bombed refinery, Gelsenberg. After the refinery was destroyed for good, she was taken to an underground factory in Sömmerda near Erfurt. In April 1945, she was sent on a death march that lasted for a month. The march came to an end in Srní close to Carlsbad – only 175 prisoners survived the horrors of the march. After the war, she reunited with all of her siblings, got married and she now has a daughter and a grandson.