Helga Weiss by STACEY NIETO

Background Information

119639_2 — 2023-12-07 19:02:38 UTC

Helga Weiss was born in Prague on November 10, 1929. Her full name is Helga Hošková-Weissová. Her parents were named Otto Weiss and Irena. Though her dad had a talent in music, she always had the passion to write and draw.

119639_2 — 2023-12-07 19:11:40 UTC

Helga sneaked this illustration to her father in the men's barracks. When her father wrote back, he replied, "Draw what you see!"

Being deported

119639_2 — 2023-12-07 19:16:10 UTC

Helga and her parents were deported to Terezin on December 7, 1941, the same day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. In 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz. Before she was deported, she entrusted her uncle, a Terezin office worker, to hide her diary.

A quote from her diary

119639_2 — 2023-12-08 18:25:24 UTC

"If I ever get home again, I will never wear anything on my head till the day I die" - Helga Weiss

Act of resistance

119639_2 — 2023-12-08 18:46:04 UTC

Her father worked in the camp office. But unfortunately, he was in poor health, and sent to Auschwitz. Where he was either gassed or forced to work to death. In October 1944, Helga and her mother were sent to Auschwitz, just like her father. She lied about being 18 when she was actually 15 at the time to avoid the gas chambers.

Terezin

119639_2 — 2023-12-08 18:58:36 UTC

Terezin was one of the death camps that seemed more like a ghetto than an actual death camp. Helga slept in the barracks dormitory next to her mother. As for her father, men and women were separated, so she didn't get to see her father as much. Helga states that Terezin felt like a prison. The children were put to work and lessons were taught in secret as they were prohibited from learning.

March, 1939

119639_2 — 2023-12-08 18:59:03 UTC

March 15, 1939 was when Nazi armies marched into Czechoslovakia. Anti-Jewish rules were then introduced, banning them from parks, cinemas, and schools. From 1939 to 1941, Jews that lived in Prague tried to live a normal life, as they were deprived of jobs and civil rights. Then, the transportations started.

119639_2 — 2023-12-09 18:20:10 UTC

Helga and her mother were in Auschwitz 7 months before the war's end. When Soviet armies were arriving, they were moved to a camp in Freiberg to build airplanes. They were then deported again to another camp in Mauthausen. They were all crammed in a cattle car with nothing to eat nor drink for days on end. As they arrived in Mauthausen, there were only a few days left until the war ended. Helga's mother was on the verge of dying due to malnutrition and an illness. On May 5, 1945, the Germans abandoned the camp and left the inmates. The inmates then put up a white flag on the flagpole. Helga wrote in her diary, "We made it. We survived the war. Peace is here."

After the war ended

119639_2 — 2023-12-09 19:55:23 UTC

16 days later after the war had ended, Helga and her mother were back in Prague. Homeless, but they were still glad to be back home. Helga was one of the 100 children who survived the holocaust. As of 2013, at age 83, she lived surprisingly well and in the same apartment before.