The Czech Anne Frank: Diary of Věrka Kohnová
In January 1942, the Kohn family boarded a transport at the Pilsen railway station and never returned. Other tenants moved into their apartment and their belongings were gradually lost. Everything disappeared, except for the diary that twelve-year-old Věrka Kohnová wrote, documenting the last tragic year of her life.
Journalist and writer Jana Poncarová was so moved by the twelve-year-old’s diary that she decided to publish a book based on the entries in collaboration with historian Jiří Sankot. The book titled “Diary of Věrka Kohnová” tells the moving story of a Jewish girl whose life was violently cut short by the Holocaust.
Czech Radio dramatized the book in one of its audio-series for the public. The following excerpt is from the day that Věrka, her parents and sister Hanka are packing the little they can take on the transport and saying goodbye to their home.
“Just make sure you take warm clothes, nothing fancy, mother says. One sweater, some underwear, two pairs of thick socks that Aunt Marie knitted for them. Věrka flips through her diary for the last time. It has to stay behind, she must leave behind her memories. It is small and would fit into a larger purse, but it can't go with her. There's no more room in the trunk, and besides, it's useless, as her mother told her. She turns one page after another, her eyes falling on random sentences. With each one, she recalls a scene from her life, like the photos from the family album. Of course, they can't take that either. She slips into her pocket a photograph of Edda and one of the family together, on a trip with Mommy and Daddy.
“Who will come to live in their rooms? What will happen to her things? They are housing Nazis in confiscated Jewish homes. The new arrivals are sure to throw their stuff away. Will she ever see her bookshelf again and the picture of the happy puppy that she's had since she was a little girl? She looks around the room. She's sick to her stomach. Someone rings the doorbell. A short, nervous ring. Aunt Marie's here. Věrka knows how dangerous it is for her to come to see them. Jews are not allowed to have visitors. They must not be helped.”
Journalist and writer Eva Poncarová says she was fascinated by the diary ever since it came into her possession – her aunt preserved it in her home for many years.
“Last year we unveiled a plaque for Věrka on the house where she and her family lived and that’s when I got the idea to write the book together with Jiří Sankot. The diary entries had already been published as they were, but she did not get the chance to tell the whole story, because she could not write after the transport to Terezín. She left a very valuable testimony of the time in how the restrictions on the Jewish community were tightened and culminated with the transports in January of 1942. And I wanted to tell the rest – to say what happened to her and her family - as a memento of the time. And it so happened that when we were working on the book Russia invaded Ukraine, and I realized that once again, the war would affect innocent children. ”
One of the most moving parts of the book tells of Věrka’s arrival in Terezín.
“They are walking through the snow. Everyone’s eyes are downcast. The officers accompanying them are silent. They march on in an orderly way. Everyone is thinking about the same things – warmth, a bed and food. Thoughts that help them fight off the fear of the unknown. They are taken to a big building. Sharp words, barked commands, sound over their heads. The men are told to march to the left, the women to move on. Věra looks fearfully at her father. So, they are to part. She sees her parents briefly clasp hands, her mother staggers. She takes her mother’s hand and they move on with the other women. “Goodbye, Daddy!” Věrka calls out. “I'll find you,” he calls back.
“They enter an unfamiliar space, it's crowded, all women. What will happen to them? They leave them standing, but Věrka wants to sit down. Someone shouts something again. She and Hanka hold hands and blindly obey orders. They have to go up the stairs and up one more floor. Then they open the door of a room and see its occupants. Tired and hostile stares. Is this where they are supposed to be?
“No room for another straw mattress in here. They are clearly not welcome. These women don't have enough room as it is. Věrka is ashamed. She looks at Hanka, who is also red-faced. Mummy nudges them. Sit down. They duck into the middle of the room, where there is still some space. Then someone pulls a straw mattress toward them. They have to share it. Věrka estimates that there are about twenty women and girls in the small room. She curls up on the mattress. She wants to sleep so that she doesn't see the chaos around her.
“The first night is rough. She can't breathe. There are so many strange sighs, sounds and smells. All three of them squashed on the same straw mattress. They jostle each other when they stir in their sleep. Because they are in the middle of the room, every time someone goes out, they trip over them. Věrka senses it through a deep fatigue. It all seems like a bad dream.”
Eva Poncarová says that publishing the book was of great significance to her. Without Věrka’s diary she says, the twelve-year-old would have been just a name and a transport number like the thousands of other children killed by the Nazis.
"I have heard some say that it is just another story and so many of these painful stories have already been told. But this is Věrka's story –it affected me very deeply and I think it's important to share it and make readers think about how is it possible that some people stood by indifferently in the face of evil. How is it that they allowed their neighbors, acquaintances, and friends to be taken away in transports? Moreover, this is a story that people can closely relate to because they can visit the home where Věrka lived, walk the route which she took to school every day, see the synagogue where her family prayed. In fact Jiří and I are thinking of establishing a “Věrka Kohnova route” linking up all the places mentioned in her diary.”
The ten-part audio series is available in Czech at: https://plus.rozhlas.cz/jak-rada-bych-zustala-zapsala-si-zidovska-divka-a-nastoupila-do-transportu-denik-9466960
