Antonie Kroková

Antonie Kroková’s father’s name was Jan Vrba, her moth­er’s Marie Serinková, and her sib­lings Jana, Josef, Antonín, Jan, Josef and Marie. She did not remem­ber the names of the oth­ers. The fam­i­ly lived in Beroun.

The fam­i­ly was unaware of the exis­tence of the camps until their depor­ta­tion in 1942. Antonie Kroková says that mixed fam­i­lies were cho­sen,[1] and that her father tried to resist, and attacked a German.

They gath­ered them in a court­yard in Beroun, where they pho­tographed them, took their fin­ger­prints and wrote down their details. They were allowed to take items weigh­ing up to 25 kilo­grams on their jour­ney. They were then trans­port­ed by lor­ry togeth­er with oth­ers to the con­cen­tra­tion camp in Lety; they were accom­pa­nied by Ger­man police.

The fam­i­ly spent nine months in Lety, before being tak­en in cat­tle trucks to the con­cen­tra­tion camp at Auschwitz. They were forced off the train by guards with dogs, beat­en, and forced to run to the camp. The pris­on­ers were first shaved, then they had to wash in cold water, and then they were giv­en prison clothes and clogs. Final­ly, a num­ber was tat­tooed on their left arm. The fam­i­ly was in quar­an­tine for about a week, and then went to block 10. The bar­racks had no win­dows or heat­ing, and there was a gate at each end. There were about a hun­dred pris­on­ers, who had three toi­lets at the end of the block. They slept on bunk beds and each had two blan­kets. They went to roll call twice a day, in the morn­ing and in the evening, which last­ed about an hour, and every­one had to go. The Block­alteste were Germans.

They were fed three times a day, most often a scoop of fod­der beet with unpeeled pota­toes, but also oat­meal or fod­der car­rots. They had to drink unsweet­ened cof­fee made from sub­sti­tutes. Bet­ter food – snails, for exam­ple – could be bought in the can­teen, but their fam­i­ly had no mon­ey. They had access to water once a day, but were not allowed to do laun­dry or wash. Antonie was a child and said that although the chil­dren did not have to go to work, they did not escape abuse. For exam­ple, they had to stand with their arms out­stretched while paper and sand was put on top. Any­one who could­n’t stay stand­ing or who cried was beat­en. Many dis­eases were ram­pant in the camp, espe­cial­ly typhus, malar­ia and dysen­tery. Antonie got typhus; her hair fell out, and she was put in iso­la­tion in a sep­a­rate block, but received no care. The sick were lying on the floor, with buck­ets of water all around, but were not allowed to drink. Sev­er­al pris­on­ers died every day.

Pits were dug around the camp into which pris­on­ers who tried to escape fell. The guards then pulled them out of the pit and let dogs tear them apart. They shot some of them and then car­ried them around the camp on stretch­ers as a warn­ing to the oth­ers. Pun­ish­ment for a pris­on­er who tried to escape was always giv­en to the whole block.

Antonie Kroková said the worst moment for her was when she stood in front of the gas cham­ber. She was saved[2] by a pro­fes­sor from Prague, whose name she does not remem­ber; he had taught her broth­er and cousin in Prague and rec­og­nized her.

Antonie Kroková stat­ed that she was then in the Birke­nau camp [Auschwitz II-Birke­nau], from there she was trans­ferred to Ravens­brück, then back to Auschwitz and to Wit­ten­berg near Berlin, where she was lib­er­at­ed by the Sovi­et army.

[1] It is not spec­i­fied how this affect­ed them.

[2] It does not say how.

Chil­dren with­out par­ents returned home by train with an escort, and of the oth­er chil­dren she remem­bered Fer­di­nand Ševčík from Pilsen, Robert Ševčík from the vil­lage of Brody,[1] Alžbě­ta Serinková, Vlas­ta Serinková, Věra Šmí­dová from Pod­bořany and Gus­tav Ser­inek. She was the only one of her fam­i­ly to return home.

[1] Prob­a­bly part of the vil­lage of Krás­ný Dvůr in the Louny district.