Ruth Elias, née Huppert, was born on 6 October 1922 in Moravská Ostrava. She had an older sister Edita. Her parents divorced when she was a child.
Ruth was active in the Zionist scout troop Makabi Hatzair, learned to play the piano and wanted to study at the conservatory in Prague. After the occupation of Ostrava, her father avoided deportation to Nisko by fleeing to relatives in Brno, and both daughters worked on a farm in nearby Pozořice.
The whole family was deported to the ghetto in Terezín in 1942, where Ruth married her boyfriend and became pregnant. Together with her husband, she was deported from Terezín to the so-called Terezín family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she gave birth. Her baby became a victim of the experiments of the Nazi doctors working in the camp. She also survived other camps: Ravensbrück, Hamburg-Freihafen and Taucha.
After the liberation, she married fellow prisoner Kurt Elias and they emigrated to Israel in 1949.
The interview was recorded on 10 August 1998 in Beit Yitzhak, Israel.
Regina Froňková, née Langfelderová, was born on 30 December 1922 in Ostrava. Her parents owned a shop on Nádražní Street, where they lived. She attended a Czech elementary school but was expelled from the secondary school for women's professions as a Jew. In 1938, she became involved in the Zionist scout movement Hashomer Hatzair.
In October 1939, her father was deported with other Ostrava Jews to a camp in Nisko, Poland, and the family was never reunited with him. The rest of the family was deported to the ghetto in Terezín. There, Regina worked as a governess and nurse of young children and was eventually saved by working in agriculture. Her brother and mother were deported from Terezín to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, where they were murdered.
After the liberation, Regina moved to Prague, got married and had two children.
The interview was recorded on 26 January 1996 in Prague.