In August 1942, Věra Löwy sent an illustrated card from the Terezin ghetto to her cousin Dan Auerbach in Žilina, Slovakia on the occasion of his seventh birthday. Věra and her parents were murdered at Auschwitz. Dan and his parents survived.
Dan-Fritz Auerbach was born in 1935 in Žilina, Czechoslovakia (later Slovakia) to Maximillian and Rozina née Löwy. Maximillian was an electrical engineer.
In the wake of the Munich Accords, on 6 October 1938 Slovakia attained autonomy within the Second Czechoslovak Republic. Dr. Jozef Tiso, a Catholic priest, became the Prime Minister of the Autonomous Land of Slovakia, and on 14 March 1939, he declared Slovakia independent. The following day, the Germans conquered Czechoslovakia, which was declared a German protectorate, henceforth known by the German names of its territories– Bohemia and Moravia. Independent Slovakia was also a German protectorate under a totalitarian regime ruled by just one legal party, the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, which collaborated with Nazi Germany.
Independent Slovakia was the first Axis member that authorized the deportation of Jews from its territory. Between March and October 1942, the Slovak authorities confined some 58,000 Jews in concentration and labor camps, deporting them from there to extermination camps in Poland. The deportations were halted temporarily in the fall of 1942, after over 34,000 Jews had already been deported to their deaths.
Maximillian and his family remained in their home in Žilina. Thanks to his profession, Maximillian received a certificate of protection as an essential worker, and his family was also exempt from deportation at that time. In July 1942, Maximillian was arrested at home in the middle of the night in front of his wife and son. "The sound of my mother's crying and begging woke me up," relates Dan. "The room was flooded with bright, blinding light. My mother lay on the floor sobbing, and two men in long, black, leather coats stood at the doorway, my father between them, holding a small backpack." They later found out that Maximillian had been sent to the Sered camp in Slovakia. Rozina and Dan remained in Žilina with Rozina's sister, Ali, and her son Peter. Rozina corresponded with members of her family, including her brother Paul, who was incarcerated in the Terezin ghetto together with his wife Mitzi and their daughter, Věra. In August 1942, Věra sent an illustrated card to her cousin Dan, on the occasion of his seventh birthday:
Happy birthday, Frick [Fritz]
Why are you sad, little Fricko? You were always happy – today, you should sing and dance – celebrate your birthday!
Fricko, if you are sad because I'm not with you, stop worrying – we will be there soon.
Do you see the train rushing there? Too slowly for me! I wish I had large wings – I would fly to you immediately.
And then we would jump up and down together – a wild, happy dance – sparks would fly off us from sheer joy.
I wish you hearty congratulations – may you always be well, and bring only joy to your dear parents,
Věra
(Translated from the Czech by Jana Marcus)
With the approach of the Red Army in late August 1944, the Slovak resistance rebelled against Tiso's regime, and the Germans intervened in order to suppress the uprising. They recommenced the deportations, and a further 12,600 Jews were deported to the extermination camps.
In mid-September, all the Jews of Žilina were ordered to report to the local school prior to deportation. Dan and his mother Rozina, his aunt Ali and her son Peter were assisted by the Auerbach's housekeeper, Mariska, who offered them a hiding place with her parents in a village until the danger had passed. The four made their way by night, and reached Mariska's parents' home. "Mother held me with one hand, carrying eiderdowns and pillows with the other," recalls Dan. "We were given a room. The house had two rooms and a kitchen, and was so wretched that the floors were made of the earth that the house stood on. Our hosts were not gracious." Fearing that they would be given over to the authorities, the four Jews escaped early the next morning, returned to Žilina and reported to the school where the Jews were being gathered. Dan relates:
The route from the school to the place where the train awaited us (a cattle-loading station) crossed the city. The rumors that the Jews were being sent to concentration camps, and the noise and tumult generated by the convoy brought many into the street. People stood on the sides of the road, and among them I recognized friends from class and the football club. Among the adults were people who were on friendly terms with my parents, and had played cards with them every Sunday… The past was erased and all was forgotten… While some of them waved farewell, most of them laughed, clapped and shouted joyfully that the Jews were being led away.
Dan, his mother Rozina and other family members were taken to the prison in Ilava. After about a month, they were transferred to the Sered camp, where they were reunited with Maximillian. A short time later, Rozina and Dan were sent to the Terezin ghetto, followed by Maximillian. Rozina's brother Paul and his family were no longer there. They had been deported in October 1944 to their deaths at Auschwitz. Ali and Peter were among the deportees from Sered to Auschwitz. Ali was murdered at Auschwitz, and her son Peter was sent to Bergen-Belsen, where he starved to death.
In May 1945, Maximillian, Rozina and Dan were liberated at Terezin by the Red Army. After liberation, ten-year-old Dan was sent to Switzerland to recuperate. Some two months later, he was reunited with his parents in Žilina, and in 1949, he immigrated to Israel with the Youth Aliyah. His parents followed some six months later.
In 1989, Dan Auerbach submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem in memory of his cousins, Věra and Peter, and other relatives. In 2018, he donated family photographs and the birthday card that Věra sent him from the Terezin ghetto, as part of the national project, "Gathering the Fragments". The birthday card is displayed here.
