I was born in Varnsdorf . My father worked for two Italian insurance companies , my mother was a trained seamstress , but she only sewed at home - officially she was a housewife . I had a sister , Liana , who was five years younger . My father was of Jewish origin , my mother wasn 't , but before their wedding she converted to the Jewish faith . Later she was persecuted for casting a slur on her race , and she paid for it with her life . In Varnsdorf we lived on the main road , where everything took place . I went to a German elementary school . As far as I know , there wasn 't even a Czech school in Varnsdorf . But from the second grade onwards we had Czech as an optional subject . Unfortunately we only had it until 1938 , after that , of course , there was no more Czech teaching . My sister went to elementary school and that was where her education ended , because then she wasn 't allowed to go to any school . I managed to take the entrance exams for grammar school when I was in the fourth grade , and did very well , but I was no longer accepted for racial reasons . I finished elementary school in the fifth grade and went on to an ordinary secondary school , where I went straight into the second grade . That meant that I managed another three grades of secondary school . As soon as the Czech border area became part of the Reich in 1938 I started to come across antisemitism at school , and it was extremely traumatic for me , because until then I had never really been aware of my Jewishness . I know that on certain occasions my father had to wear a hat , but I don 't remember Jewish holidays being celebrated in any particular way . Only Long Day , as my father called it , the Day of Atonement , Yom Kippur , was observed . My mother learnt to cook a great many good Jewish dishes , which I liked very much . I was different from the other children in that I had time off when they had religious education lessons . I also remember that one of our neighbours sometimes used to tell me off for using a Jewish word here or there , she said literally : Du jüdelst schon wieder . I had no idea what she meant by that , and when I asked about it at home , my parents told me : Take no notice of her . My shock was thus all the greater when I came across open antisemitism in school . I remember it vividly . I came to school on the first day , and I stopped in the doorway , because there were some newspaper cuttings hanging from the blackboard , and the girls were standing around them and shouting and laughing , and when I went into the classroom they took them down and looked at me in a strange way , and I immediately felt that I was part of some sort of game . That 's how it started . Every day after that I had antisemitic writing or drawings on my desk . Whenever a guilty party was being sought in the class , the children always said it was me . Some girls even thought up various slanderous things about me , and some teachers punished me unjustly . In a short time I went from being one of the best pupils to being a publicly - vilified victim . The teachers mostly reacted with indifference , although they knew perfectly well that it wasn 't true , and some of them relished punishing me . I used to enjoy going to school , but now my relationship with it changed radically . Every morning I shook with fear , wondering what awaited me in the classroom . At home I was afraid to talk about it - my father was already in a camp , and I didn 't want to add to my mother 's worries when she was up to her ears in difficulties as it was . There was one girl in particular who stood out as having a rather leader - type personality , and captivated the others . She banned the girls from being friends with me . No one talked to me , and I was suddenly the outcast of the class . It was so bad that at home I cried and refused to carry on going to school . At that point my mother girded herself and we went to see the mother of the class ringleader . I have to say that after that , things were much better . I suddenly found myself under the girl 's protection , and from then until the end of the school year things weren 't so bad . In the new year , too , the situation was better . The children got used to it , although the bullying from some children and teachers continued . I was not allowed to recite in public , for example , even though I was the best at reciting in the whole school . Or the gym teacher would give me nothing but bad marks , although I did my exercises well . The events of Kristallnacht in Varnsdorf are engraved on my memory . That evening we had a visit from a young girl for whom my mother was making a dress for dance classes . They sent me and my sister to bed . Our bedroom looked on to the street , and we were woken up by terrible shouting in the street : Jews out ! Jews to the gallows ! We both woke up , started crying with fear and ran to find our mother . The girl was still sitting there , and we shouted that we weren 't staying there . My mother hugged us and started to cry herself . My grandmother was there too , and she calmed us down , and I remember vividly how the young girl - she was German - went outside and shouted at the mob : Shame on you ! Aren 't you ashamed , frightening this woman and her children to death ? What have they ever done ? Shortly afterwards the crowd moved on , but we learnt that the same shouting had taken place outside every house where they had arrested someone that day . There was a strange atmosphere in general that day . Two policemen came for my father , one was local , still in a Czech uniform , and the other in a German Reich uniform . My father wasn 't at home , just my mother and we two children , and my grandmother . My sister and I were playing in the corner with our toys . The German Reich policeman said , somewhat awkwardly : There are children playing here . But the local one - he even used to go to school with my father - was far more impenetrable . Then they left and waited in front of the house until my father returned . When they came upstairs with him , my father was joking , he asked if he had time for coffee . They said there wasn 't time , and my mother started to cry . My father comforted her and said : Look , what are you worrying about , I haven 't done anything to anyone , I 'm not afraid of anything , there 's been some mistake and it will all be explained soon . That was the first great earthquake , and it engraved itself on my childish psyche and has never disappeared . Many times I have thought that the passing of the years has healed it , that it 's gone , but then I find that it 's still incredibly vivid , that today it seems to hurt even more than before . They took my father to Oranienburg - Sachsenhausen . For a long time we didn 't know . My mother found out from people she knew , the wives of Jewish men who had also been arrested , that they spent the first night in the cells in Varnsdorf , they called it Schutzhaft , protective custody . Then they took them somewhere , no one knew where , and it took a long time - I no longer know how long , but it seemed endless to us - before the first letter came , written in printed letters , from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . In the prescribed thirty words he wrote that he was doing well , and that he hoped we children were being good , just a neutral letter . He came home at Christmas , but he was in an awful state . His hands and feet were frostbitten to the bone . We called the doctor , who treated him , and my mother wanted to know more details , but all my father said was : Don 't ask me , I 've had to swear that I won 't say anything to anyone . And he really didn 't tell us anything . I don 't know if he told my mother anything when they were alone , but whenever we children were there , he never said a word . As soon as his hands and feet had healed and he was capable of normal life , once he could walk and pick things up , he went to Prague , and stayed there until the transport to Terezín . It is interesting that , long before that , there had been talks and discussions in my family about the possibility of emigrating to England . I remember that in a room in the attic we had big boxes packed with some precious china that was to be moved . But it was only ever discussed , nothing ever actually happened . Shortly before the occupation , my mother wrote to my father , begging him to leave for London and not to stay in Prague , because the Germans would definitely come to Prague too . I still have my father 's answer , in which he writes : Don 't be silly , Germans in Prague , that just wouldn 't happen . My mother turned out to be right , and it became reality faster than anyone thought it would . At the time of the Munich agreement my parents decided that we should at least go to Prague . They had a friend who was a taxi driver , who sometimes took us on trips on Sundays , and he said it was no longer possible , because there was shooting at the Šébr pass . I remember the mobilisation period , above all my brave grandmother . It started with the Turner gymnasts and other men marching past , shouting Women and children to the border ! And that everyone would be evacuated to the Reich . Of course we didn 't go anywhere , but most of the Germans went . Our town , which at that time had a population of 23 , 000 , was completely deserted . When the Czech unit came , it was a huge relief . Unfortunately that lasted only a short time . I remember my grandmother going shopping and coming back full of joy ; she told us she 'd been talking with Czech soldiers who had given her a hand grenade to feel . It looked like an egg , apparently . My grandmother said : They won 't hand us over , don 't worry ! She was full of optimism . But then the Czech borderlands were ceded , and the Germans came . We were alone in Varnsdorf . My father was living in Prague at various addresses , we had a very large family and a huge number of various aunts and uncles . We went to visit some with my mother when we arrived in Prague . My father was waiting for us at the station , we threw ourselves at him and shouted with joy at seeing him . The first thing he told us was that we had to whisper , that people didn 't speak German here . He was embarrassed that we didn 't really know Czech . My father earned his living in Prague in any way he could , including gardening in the Old Jewish Cemetery , sweeping the road , clearing snow and whatever he could do to earn a living in some way . He spent a relatively long time in Prague , he was deported to Terezín on transport AAu , in which he had the number 105 . I remember the number precisely . I think it was in 1942 . The post from Terezín came regularly once a month , a note similar to that which we had from Sachsenhausen , and we could even send parcels there . I remember that my sister was friends with a girl whose father was a butcher . He sometimes gave us a bit of salami . My grandmother , who insisted that everything must be sent to Terezín , used to bake cakes , rather strange ones out of potatoes and a bit of flour to keep it together , and sent them to my father - who , by the way , had once been very picky about his food . Now , with enormous gratitude he thanked us for the very small packages that we were able to send him , and which he was clearly receiving . Then the letters stopped , nothing came , and my grandmother was afraid he was no longer there , but I didn 't want to admit it . By that time we already knew that the war was coming to an end . My mother tried to earn money by sewing , and she had a few acquaintances who asked her to make clothes . She must have earned something , because I can 't imagine that we would have lived off my grandmother 's pension alone . I remember that my mother was increasingly losing her mental stability , she didn 't know what to do , and she would succumb to utter gloom . The Germans urged her to divorce - that , they said , would make everything easier , and above all would save the children . It was a very hard decision for my mother . It looked at one point as if she would succumb to the pressure . She went off to Česká Lípa , I think there was a Landrat or an Oberlandrat there , where it seems they gave her instructions as to how to proceed . Then she insisted that she had to go and see my father in Prague so that she could discuss it with him , since if she did agree to it , it would of course only be a fake divorce , not a real one . That made me realise that she loved my father deeply . She really did manage to get to Prague and to agree with my father that they would divorce . In the end , however , my mother refused to get divorced . In that one matter she was very strong . So the situation stayed the same , and she was tormented and bullied more and more . Numerous times my mother came home in tears , and , frightened to death , recounted various incidents - that someone had crossed over to the other side of the road , that someone had said something nasty to her face . In short , it was daily bullying , which clearly she could no longer take . After a while , only my grandmother did the shopping , since she was not afraid and knew just what to say to everyone , whereas my mother was depressed and would start crying immediately . I think that it was this quality in her character that made her such an easy and welcome victim , on which the Nazis unleashed all their passions . She was repeatedly called up in front of the authorities . The Gestapo searched our house several times , slashing the mattresses and damaging the furniture , throwing everything around , and it was very , very bad . For my mother these were traumatic experiences , which mounted up in her head and gradually led to pathological hysteria . One day my mother received a summons to go to some office or other where they clearly threatened to imprison her , maybe even send her to a camp , but above all to take her children away . At that point she succumbed to utter despair , and became obsessed with the idea that she had to protect her children . And protecting her children meant to her that she had to put herself out of the way . The Germans also emphasised that she was responsible for her own and our fates , that if she had got divorced , the whole affair would have been sorted and she would have had been left in peace . She had a few pieces of jewellery , not much , but she was clearly very attached to them , maybe her father had given them to her . One day she went off and took the things to a friend , saying that they would be safe there , and that if the Gestapo came to our house again , they would take them from us anyway , just as we had earlier had to hand over our radio . Later she was always saying that she should have brought the jewellery back again , but that she never found the courage to do so . At Easter 1940 she decided to take her own life . I used to sleep with her in the double bed , while my sister slept in a children 's bed . I was woken up by a noise . My mother was in the window . I couldn 't tell what she was doing , because I 've been very short sighted since birth , and without my glasses I wasn 't able to tell . I called to her : What are you doing , Mummy ? but she did not answer . Suddenly there was silence , but I had the feeling that something terrible had happened . I shouted out , and ran to get my grandmother . Together we cut her down and brought her back to life . My mother was angry with us for doing it . She had an ugly red mark on her neck , but soon she recovered . She lamented : Why didn 't you leave me ? Everything would have been sorted out . I was just over ten years old , and as a result of all these events and the whole way in which things had developed , I rapidly lost my childhood , my childish way of thinking about things , my childish ideas . My mother was always talking to me as a partner , and wanted me to comfort her , and I tried terribly hard to comfort and help her . But at the same time I was afraid of all those outpourings , the hysterical shouting and crying that always accompanied it . It frightened me , and , to be honest , I tried to avoid it , and would go outside or read , I felt that I couldn 't bear it alone . Nevertheless , I still blame myself for not having done more for her . After her suicide attempt I made my mother promise that she would never do it again , but my mother said : I can 't promise you , but I will promise that I won 't do it before I 've brought the jewellery back for you . Since in the past she had talked long and often about the fact that she would have to bring it back , but she never did , I satisfied myself with that . And then one day , I remember it as if it were today , I was sitting on the sofa in the living room , reading a book . My mother came in and said in a largely cheerful voice : I 've brought the jewellery . And I just raised my head a little and said Yes ? and she said Yes . And I carried on reading . My mother sat down and unwrapped her treasure . There were pearls there , a string of pearls that her father had clearly given her for her wedding . It was a hot day and the windows were open , and suddenly my mother hurled the pearls out of the window . The river Mandava flowed under the windows , and the pearls drowned in it . My mother said : Pearls mean tears , and I hardly have any left . I was startled by what she had done , but I had the feeling that it had brought her relief . I just blame myself for the fact that I paid no attention to the actual fact that my mother had brought the jewellery home . The next day , as I was coming home from school , I saw my grandmother standing in front of the house . I am so short sighted that I cannot recognise anyone at any great distance , but that time I recognised my grandmother precisely , even though she was still a long way off . And I knew what had happened even before I reached her . And I wasn 't wrong . My mother died almost a month after her first suicide attempt , in April 1940 , I remember that her funeral was on Hitler 's birthday , 20 April . They didn 't allow my father to come to my mother 's funeral , but later they did allow him to visit Varnsdorf so that he could deal with my mother 's estate . What it consisted of I can 't say , because we really didn 't have any property to speak of , but maybe he had to sign something to say that everything belonged to the children , I don 't know . He was only with us for a very short time , his permit was for about two days . Our neighbour immediately went to tell the Gestapo that Mr . Schück was here , and that if that stinking Jew stayed here , she wouldn 't live with him under one roof . My father returned to Prague , and we wrote to each other regularly , I was in charge of the correspondence , my grandmother usually added a few words and my sister was only just learning to write . I still have all the letters , although I have cut off all the stamps with Hitler 's portrait . After my mother 's death , my grandmother took care of us . She took over responsibility for bringing us up , although the Germans offered to take us into an orphanage . My grandmother wouldn 't have it , although she was sixty - seven at the time . My grandmother was very small , but spare , with a huge amount of understanding for us children , and great inner strength . She managed to deal with everything , she had never - ending optimism , and she knew how to fight . I remember that when the Soviet Union was attacked , our fanatical neighbours once again caused a rumpus and told us that it was all the fault of the Jews . Our grandmother wasted no time in going to tell them off for saying such stupid things to children . In short , my grandmother was afraid of no one and nothing , and found the courage to do anything if she considered it necessary . I think my sister and I have my grandmother to thank for the fact that we even survived . At that time , after leaving secondary school , German girls had to work in a family , it was called a Pflichtjahr , and so when I finished school , the labour office assigned me to a family that , by chance , moved from Varnsdorf to Vrchlabí soon afterwards . They told me I could come with them if I wanted , so I did . I was with them for nine months , and was essentially their maid . The wife was a committed national socialist , but she didn 't behave towards me as badly as you might have thought . Her husband was a soldier . They had two daughters , the younger of whom was the same age as my sister . She was a terribly malicious little creature , constantly bulling , provoking and needling me in this sort of way : Mummy says you have to put up with everything because you 're a Jew . I was awfully angry with the girl , but I have to say that by that time I had learnt how to control myself well . I said nothing out loud , I didn 't apologise , I just thought my own thoughts , but I was choking with helpless anger . I knew that as soon as I opened my mouth I would get such a slap that I would remember it for ever , or that it would Margit 's grandparents ' wedding photograph - Antonie Zemanová and Anton Schmidt . ( Photo : archive of the Jewish Museum in Prague ) In exchange for this service , I had accommodation , food and pocket money - eight marks a month . This is also interesting : at that time there were food coupons , and although my sister and I were young people or children , we had food coupons for outcasts - with no meat , no butter , just bread , potatoes , a little sugar , pasta and I don 't know what else . Only my grandmother had normal coupons , because she was an Aryan , she was a Czech who married a German . I stayed in that family for nine months , and then they called me into the labour office and told me that the Pflichtjahr was honorary service to the German nation , but that I was not worthy of it and that I had to leave the family immediately and go and work for a farmer . According to the Labour Office 's decision , I was supposed to start working for a farmer in the Krkonoše . I went to see them , and it was terrible . A house by itself on a hill , everyone lived in one room , family , children , animals . It was incredibly rank and dirty , awful conditions . When I told the labour office that they didn 't have anywhere for me to sleep , they replied with a malevolent smile : There 's room everywhere for your sort . I was in despair , I wrote and told my grandmother what had happened , and once again my grandmother got to work . In a very short time I received a letter from her telling me not to wait , but to pack my things and come home because she 'd found me work at a farmer 's in Varnsdorf . And so I came home . I worked for the farmer for a short time , but they sound found out that I was utterly unsuited to that type of work , since during the month I was there I managed to break my glasses while chopping wood , injure myself with a fork while spreading manure , and break my hand falling off a hay cart . Soon they didn 't want me any more , because I was forever sick and forever spoiling things . In addition , I made use of every free minute to read . Since my only free minutes were when I was on the loo , the farmers soon found out . Then I started work for a gardener in Varnsdorf , where I did everything that needed doing , and it was a very pleasant time - unfortunately also a short one which only lasted until autumn , since after that the gardener had no work . The gardener used to go to school with my father , and politically he was very much against the Hitler regime , so we got on very well . He even gave me a few of the vegetables we grew , to help out our poor household . When I finished working for the gardener , the labour office sent me to work in a munitions factory as forced labour . It should be mentioned , however , that the Plauert factory in Varnsdorf was known as a bastion of social democrats and communists , and that is where I learnt what solidarity is , in the best sense of the word . First of all I was put on the grinding machine , where before long I ground my finger , and so they moved me to the drill , where I also had a minor injury . There were always long and complicated investigations as to whether it was sabotage . Finally , I worked in the tool room . I had only been there for a very short time when a man came up to me and said he knew my story , my parents and above all my father , and asked if we were in contact with him - my father was in Terezín at the time . Then he started bringing me food for him , and cigarettes , usually only two or three at a time , because they were very valuable items . In addition , he let me know who I should and shouldn 't talk to , and where I should be careful of what I said . However , I was a young loudmouth - I was fourteen - and sometimes I behaved in ways that make me amazed today that I got away with it . For example , I went to see a worker whom I had been told was a reliable person , and I said to him : Mr . Tischler , you 're not in the party , are you ? He looked at me and said : What are you talking about ? And I said : I know you were in a party that isn 't allowed to exist any more . Of course he told me to get lost , and he was absolutely right . Although they kept trying to move me in the factory to the worst type of work , like washing windows and dragging heavy pieces of steel , there were always people who would step in at a certain moment by saying , for example , that that was enough and that I had to do something else . I stayed in the factory until just before the end of the war . I don 't know exactly on what day it finished in Varnsdorf , when the Soviet Army came , whether it was May 7th , 8th or 9th , but I remember it very well . As usual , my sister and I were in front of the house - we spent a large amount of time there - and we looked on and welcomed the army , waving and shouting - we were happy . But the soldiers and civilians looked at us as if we were mad . Of course the Germans had all retreated inside , they had the windows boarded up or they were peeking out from behind the curtains , and we could feel directly their hostile looks at our backs . But we were no longer afraid of anything , and above all we were looking forward to our father coming home soon . It might be interesting if I said something about the evacuation of the Germans as I experienced it , since it 's a much - discussed issue today . Above all it seemed to me to be entirely just . When the Germans complained that it was unjust , I replied to them at the time : Our people went to their deaths , you are only going to another life , so you have no right to complain . Of course that derived from my personal experiences , I saw it through the lense of the tragedy of our whole family , and clearly there was also a certain element of revenge or just deserts . Nevertheless , we distinguished between Germans . There was a family living in our building that had moved her during the war , they had been bombed out and they were given a flat in our building that was free . They were a young woman , her invalid husband and a little child . The Czechs came to arrest the man , and his wife ran crying to my grandmother . All the time they had lived in our building they had been very polite to us , they had been uncommonly respectful to my grandmother and helped her whenever they could . So my fearless grandmother went to defend him . In front of her eyes they pulled off his shirt , so they could see he had an SS number tattooed under his arm , and after that there was nothing she could do . The wife had to go to a collection camp , and we let their little boy stay with us until they were transported to Germany . Another family had a different fate - a family with whom I am still in contact , or rather with the daughter , since her parents are no longer alive . As a schoolgirl I used to go and play with them , and look after the little girl . I was about twelve or a little bit younger , and the little girl was five . Her parents had a lot of work , and they needed someone to look after their daughter . I said that I would , I wanted to lighten the burden on my grandmother a little , because she received nine marks a month for each of us . She herself had , I think , a pension of twenty - seven marks , and on that she had to get by , and so she did . The Jakubetz family were very good and kind to me , and in 1945 , when they were to be removed from the country , I felt it was my duty to help them . I went to the Soviet command , where I insisted on seeing the commander - all in German , because I didn 't speak Czech , and definitely not Russian . I didn 't take them a white strip like the Germans , I didn 't feel I was a German , although I only spoke German . I don 't know who it was that I spoke to in the end , but I just told them about those people and I really did get an exemption for them , and they were taken out of the transfer . Unfortunately only out of the first one , since when further ones followed , the Czech official in charge tore up the piece of paper and they were transferred all the same . It is interesting that they were never bitter towards Czechoslovakia ; on the contrary , they have a very warm relationship towards it . I don 't know about any excesses during which Germans were actually harmed , I didn 't see anything of that sort , I think that where we lived it took place in an orderly manner , although in the tense revolutionary atmosphere of the time , because during the period after the war , national emotions necessarily ran high , and there were all sorts of passions . Certainly , the Germans were not handled with kid gloves , but I didn 't see or even hear of anyone being tortured or beaten , and I think I would have heard if there had been , since very many people we knew were removed . I have one more particularly vivid memory of the Soviet soldiers . There was a hairdresser 's in our building , which was naturally closed during that turbulent time . A Soviet jeep drove up , and some women in military uniform got out of it and insisted on seeing the hairdresser . I went to find the hairdresser , who was immediately terribly frightened and , in a state of great alarm , went to comb and curl the Russian ladies ' hair . The driver remained seated outside , and my sister and I went to try and talk to him , which was fairly difficult . Nevertheless , we somehow managed to , and in the end we invited him in to our flat . My grandmother had more luck talking to him in Czech , and she told him our family 's story . When the women had had their hair curled , they told me I could go with them if I wanted . They drove to the nearest bakery , where one of the women soldiers ordered bread . When the German baker asked for coupons , she said she had none , and she pulled out some money , it was some strange kind of Allied money . The baker hesitated to accept it , but she of course knew how to make her wishes felt . She took two large loaves of bread , and we went back to the jeep . They took me to the military command , where I was also given jam , some socks , artificial honey and the two loaves of bread . Then they put me back in the jeep and took me home . This incident was interpreted very badly , and when shortly afterwards I went to see my aunt , where we used to listen to the rWe waited impatiently for my father , but he still hadn 't come back . Most of my friends had moved away from Varnsdorf or been transferred , and so I felt quite lonely . I started to think about what would happen next . My first task was to learn Czech fast . I tried as hard as I could - with the help of my grandmother , who spoke only Czech to Liana and me . In order to become perfect I needed to live in a genuinely Czech environment , and I was also very keen to get into some sort of school . I considered it highly unfair that I hadn 't been able to go to secondary school and been able to study , because I loved school . In addition , I longed to go to Prague . The mere name enchanted me , it was exciting and full of promise . Moreover , it was the place to which my father had gone when he returned from the camp , it had given him temporary refuge and he himself saw hope in it . Then a letter came from Mrs . Ranschburgrová , who had known my father in Terezín and had found us in Varnsdorf . They had promised each other that whoever survived would look after the children Mrs . Ranschburgrová had survived with her very invalid husband and her daughter . They had also killed her son . From her letter we learned that my father had been in Terezín until October 1944 , when he was sent on one of the last transports to the gas chambers in Auschwitz . She invited me to Prague , where we went round all the possible institutions and offices , to try and gain orphans ' pensions for me and my sister and some sort of help from JOINT . Her family provided a base for me in Prague , although I stayed in Varnsdorf for some time after that . We still wrote to each other , and one day I just decided that I had to go to Prague . I went , and told Mrs . Ranschburgerová . She thought I was completely mad , because I couldn 't live in Prague when I didn 't know the language . My grandmother had relatives in Prague too , though , and they helped me . They were called Zeman , like my grandmother when she was single , and they had a salon at the bottom of Wenceslas Square , next to Baťa on the first floor , where they made bras and corsets . They lived in Žitná street . One of their employees was just getting divorced , and she was looking for someone to look after her five - year - old son . At that moment I appeared on the scene , and jumped at the opportunity . I also went to Czech courses , and tried to read Czech books , although I didn 't understand them very well . After that , events started to unfold normally , I met more and more people , who helped me to sit the external school - leaving exam at the British Institute , I got into university and thus fulfilled my dream . None of my father 's many Prague relatives had come home . His mother , who lived with her daughter in Vienna , had died before the transport . We never heard anything more about my father 's sister . My father 's brother and his eldest son also died in Auschwitz . His widow returned with their daughter Eva and younger son Viki , who left shortly after that and lived in Israel until his death .