In 1941 eleven-year-old Eva Löwidtová was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto with her parents. From there, the family was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp at the end of 1944. Eva’s father Jindřich Löwidt died of typhus in early 1945. Eva Löwidtová and her mother Marta were moved to a sub-camp of Groß-Rosen concentration camp in Christianstadt, which the SS evacuated at the beginning of 1945. Eva Löwidtová and her mother were sent on a death march.
In April 1945 Eva Löwidtová had to watch her mother die in a transit camp, as a result of an inflammation of her leg. The next day, the prisoners slept in a stable. Eva Löwidtová overslept the wake-up call the next morning, and was left behind alone. She decided to ask for help in the nearby village.
However, she collapsed from hunger and weakness on the way there. A farmer from Postřekov (Possigkau) found her unconscious in a field, and took her home with him. Ludmila and Kryštof Jahn took care of Eva Löwidtová, despite guessing that she was Jewish.
In June 1945 Eva Löwidtová was collected by her aunt, the only other family member to survive the war.
Eva Löwidtová with her mother Marta on the balcony of their house in Děčín (Tetschen), 1932. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Eva Löwidtová (2nd row, 1st from right) in third grade, shortly before she had to leave her state school, Prague, 1939. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Excerpt from the register at Helmbrecht concentration camp, listing Eva and Marta Löwidtová as prisoners, 1945. Source: Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg
Eva Löwidtová outside her grandparents’ house in Heřmanův Městec (Hermannstädtel), fall 1945. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
