I do not want the suffering of the Jewish girl Ilse to be forgotten
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Eva Žárská was born on 1 July 1935 in Vsetín as one of five children of Lydia and František Lukáš. Her father owned a construction company and was responsible for the creation of several noteworthy buildings in the Vsetín area. Her family was friends with the Jewish Eichner family who were sent to a concentration camp during World War II. Of them all, only the daughter Ilse had survived, managing to escape during a prisoners’ march to work. After the war, the Lukáš’s sought to find her and succeeded, accepting her into their family. Eva later initiated the publishing of the book ‘Through the child’s eyes’ written by Ilse based on her war-time diary. Ilse lives in the United States but remains in contact with Eva. After the end of WW II Eva faced persecution because of her father being a businessman. Despite him taking part in the resistance and building a secret bunker for partisans, the communist regime considered him an enemy because he owned a company of 125 employees. His firm was expropriated from him. Eva fell ill with tuberculosis and was not admitted to university. For a year she worked at the railways, later as a clerk and eventually she had done a follow-up study, working for the rest of her life as a hygienist. She got married to Radomír Žárský who descended from a family of Czech National Socialists and was active with the Protestant Church. For this reason, they kept running into trouble with the regime. In 1989 the Žárský family was among the first in Vsetín to join the counter-communist demonstrations and the establishment of Civic Forums. At present, Eva contributes to a regional newspaper, organizes lectures for students and makes sure the dramatic fate of her Jewish friend Ilse is not forgotten.
