Alice Hrbková was born in Prague in 1928. According to the Nuremberg laws her father was a Jew while her mother was a German. The family lived in poverty, but Alice remembers her childhood as being a happy period of her life. Unfortunately, her mother died of tuberculosis at the beginning of the war and thus Alice and her father lost the protection arising from the wedlock with an "Aryan". Alice was deported to Terezín ghetto in 1943 and survived there until the liberation. The interview was recorded in Nový Bor on 20th February 1997.
Ruth Blažková was born in Brno in 1929. Her father was an inspector at the Czech State Railways. That might have been the reason why Gestapo imprisoned and interrogated him shortly after the occupation. Ruty had been studying at Associated Jewish Reform High School in Brno before all education of Jews was prohibited. Since 1941, she lived together with her brother and her parents in a common flat with further two Jewish families. In 1942 they were all ordered to report for a transport to the Terezín ghetto. Ruth spent most of her time there in the girls' home L410. She kept a diary with illustrated entries of everyday life in Terezín. In February 1945, she was included in a special transport to Switzerland that was supposedly was a result of some secret negotiations of the Allies with the Nazis. The interview was recorded on 21st March 1996 in Brno.
Helga Hošková was born in Prague in 1929. After she had been expelled from the school due to the anti-Jewish regulations, she was deported to Terezín ghetto. She kept a diary and made many drawings of life in the ghetto. Since July 1942, she lived in the girls' home L410. In 1944 she was deported, with her mother, to Auschwitz-Birkenau and then to further camps of Freiberg and Mauthausen, where she lived to see the liberation. After the war she studied at the School of Applied Arts, in the atelier of Emil Filla. She became an academic painter. She often works with the themes of Terezín and holocaust in her paintings. The interview was recorded in Prague on 1st February 1996.
Marianna Foltýnová was born in Opava in 1922, but she was raised in Prague. Her mother was a very good cook, in the 1930s she cooked for refugees from Germany in order to make more money for the family budget. Shortly after the occupation, Marianna met her future husband in a café where Jews were allowed. He was ordered on the first transport (Ak I) to Terezín ghetto in 1941, she was deported to Terezín just a few months later. They got married in the ghetto and remained a husband and wife for ever after. The interview was recorded in Prague on 14th October 1996.
James (Jaroslav) Bor was born in Milevsko in 1920. His original last name was Bloch. His father fought in Italy with the Czechoslovak legion in the WWI, and the family had always considered themselves to be Czech. Jaroslav studied at a grammar school in the town of Tábor and later joined student Communist organisation Mladá kultura (Youth Culture) in Prague. He was arrested in January 1939 for his Communist activities. That probably lead to his deportation to Terezin ghetto on one o fthe first transports (Ak). He survived not only Terezín but also the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Eichen and Taucha. The interview was recorded in Prague on 10th October 1996.
Zuzana Rydygerová was born to a Jewish family in Prague in 1924. Because of the anti-Jewish regulations she was expelled from the grammar school. She wanted to marry her fiancé Jiří Kohn shortly before his deportation to Terezín ghetto, when he was ordered to join the first transport (Ak). Nevertheless, Zuzana arrived to the ghetto with her parents only in September 1942. She got pregnant in Terezín and gave birth to a son in December 1943. The baby boy was taken from her and murdered. She lived to see the liberation in Terezín. The interview was recorded in Děčín on 4th March 1996.