Saturday, April 30, 2011

The Prague landlords of Charlie

I have been pinning high hopes on the identification of Charlie's and Ellie's landlords from his Prague days. Maybe he came to visit them in 1967? Maybe there were some unsettled accounts? Maybe there was some dark wartime mystery? Maybe Charlie was helping their kids, like so many other kids? Maybe he wanted to get them out of the country?

I do know their exact identities now. It took almost a year to identify them. Leo Pick. Otto Pick. Thea Pickova. Leontina Pickova. Jiri Hermann. Zdenka Hermannova. Simple office clerks, definitely not rich.

While the transport dates listed on their police registration forms do not at all match their Terezin inmate cards, by more then two years in one case, one thing is clear: none of them survived the war.

Leo left the ghetto on Ek, being listed as number 2057 to Auschwitz. Thea went on En, number 412. Leontina, sometimes called Lenka, left on Dm, as number 2581, also to Auschwitz. Otto went with Dm, the same transport, as number 2580, at least traveling together with his grandma. Jiri Herman left to Auschwitz with Er, as number 1022, and his wife Zdenka was brought to death by the Dl-791.

No witnesses of anything will be found in this direction...