In the autumn of 1938, there were half a million refugees in the encircled Czechoslovakia, desperately seeking help and support in their search for a new life after fleeing their homes.
Now watch clips of testimony of some of them.
Margit Herrmann was born in May 1921 in Varnsdorf. Her parents came from Czech rural Jewish families and moved to Varnsdorf for safety during the anti-Jewish riots at the end of the 19th century. Her father was a classmate of the second Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš. Margit grew up in a Czech-speaking family in a purely German-speaking environment. After the outbreak of the Sudeten crisis and the announcement of the mobilisation, Margit's parents sent her to Prague. She was deported to the ghetto in Terezín, from there to the so-called Terezín family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau and then to slave labour in the concentration camps Hamburg-Tiefstack, Neugraben and Freihafen, and was liberated in Bergen-Belsen. The interview was filmed on 2 May 1997 in Jindřichův Hradec.
Margita Kárná was born in February 1923 in Trnovany. In the autumn of 1938 she had to leave the borderlands with her family. They became refugees and settled in Prague, where everyone was desperately looking for work. Margita worked in a bookbinding shop, her mother glued shoes for dolls. Their earnings were enough to pay the rent. After being deported to the ghetto in Terezín and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Margita survived the camps of Sackisch and Bad Kudowa. After 1989, she was a key figure in the Terezin Initiative, an association of survivors and memorials supporting historical research and preserving the memory of the murdered. The interview was recorded on 21 March 1996 in Prague.
Eva Roubíčková was born in July 1921 in Žatec. Her father was a professor at the high school, her mother played the organ in the local synagogue. After the border area of Žatec was ceded, it became dangerous for Jews to go out on the street, and Nazi fighters broke their windows. Eventually, the family hastily fled to Prague and sought emigration. They never managed to leave. Eva was the only one of her family to survive the end of the war in the Terezín ghetto. The interview was filmed on January 19, 1996 in Prague.
How would you summarize the content of these three testimonies in one sentence?