place:"Czechoslovakia" found 2 records - The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network

Notes: Thomas Otto Hecht was born on August 14, 1929 in Brno, Czech Republic. His family moved to Bratislava when he was five years old. Thomas remembers that he encountered antisemitism in his early years at school, when the other kids were told by a nun that Jesus died because of the Jews. In May 1939, Thomas’ father moved to Paris. The rest of the family would follow him in the fall of 1939. Thomas, his parents and his sister, stayed in Paris until June 1940, when they fled the Nazi invasion. They first tried to join the Czechoslovakian army in Agde, France, but as soon as they understood it was pointless, they tried to reach Spain. They eventually made it to Portugal and stayed in Lisbon until November 1941. At that point, they left for Canada on the Serpa Pinto. During their journey, the USA entered the war, cancelling the transit visas Thomas and his family obtained to reach Canada through the USA. The Hechts were thus kept and interrogated at Ellis Island but were eventually released and transferred to Montreal in December 1941. The Hechts started a new life in Canada. At the end of the war, only four relatives of theirs had survived, and they all immigrated to Canada.

Accession No.: WTH-528

Name Access: Hecht, Thomas O.

Places: Brno, Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia), Europe

Archival / Genealogical: Archival Descriptions

Repository: Montreal Holocaust Museum

Images

Rozmovits, Dora - Oral History of a Holocaust Survivor

https://www.cjhn.ca/link/cjhn60306

Collection: WITNESS TO HISTORY COLLECTION (MHMC-02)

Description Level: Item

Material Type: moving images

Physical Description: 03:18:29

1 image

Collection: WITNESS TO HISTORY COLLECTION (MHMC-02)

Description Level: Item

Material Type: moving images

Physical Description: 03:18:29

Creator: Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre

Language: English

Notes: Dora Rozmovits was born on August 14, 1928 in Kalnik, Ukraine (Czechoslovakia). The family moved to Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, where she remembers a peaceful upbringing with her seven siblings in an orthodox Jewish home. By 1938, Dora recalls an uneasiness in the air as changes began; Dora escaped to Prague and returned back home to Kalnik. In April 1944, Dora and her family were rounded up along with other members of the community and forced to stay about two weeks in a ghetto outside Munkacs. From there, they were taken on a two-day train ride with no food or water, and no knowledge as to their destination. They arrived in Auschwitz; this was the last time Dora would see her mother. They were hauled into barracks and stripped of their clothes and everything they owned. From Auschwitz, Dora was transferred to Stutthof concentration camp for two weeks where she endured brutal treatment, terrible living conditions and daily appels. She was then sent to work in the forests, digging trenches for soldiers. After a couple of weeks of extreme physical labour, she was forced on a two week march to a camp near Pruszcz Gdansk, Poland. After another final transfer to the area of Gdansk, a typhoid fever epidemic broke out during which her eldest sister became very ill. Dora hid her sister during this time; after about a month, Dora herself contracted the disease, but fortunately recovered by the time of liberation. The Russians arrived on March 26th, 1945. Dora had been working in a sick camp despite only being 15 years old. From here, Dora returned to Gdansk with her sister and then to Kalnik where they were reunited with their father, two brothers, and two sisters. They found out that their mother and two brothers died. The family moved back to Karlovy Vary and Dora moved to Marseille, France, to volunteer for Hagana, an Israeli underground. After meeting her husband, Dora moved to Israel where she got a job working in a kitchen. She was reunited with her husband who at the time was in the army. Dora found a job at a Mental Hospital in Carmel. She gave birth to her first son in Israel. Dora and her family decided to go to Canada as her stepmother’s brother lived in Montreal. In Dora’s closing statement, she thanks God for her children and husband, and wishes that no one should ever have to experience what she went through.

Accession No.: WTH-295

Name Access: Rozmovits, Dora

Places: Kalnik, Ukraine (Czechoslovakia), Europe

Archival / Genealogical: Archival Descriptions

Repository: Montreal Holocaust Museum