Holocaust - Individual Interviews

Lily Bruml was born in 1923 in Trautenau (Trutnov), Sudetenland. Her father was a successful businessman, a manufacturer of toys, who had come to Czechoslovakia from Vienna in 1915. She describes her childhood years in idyllic terms, enjoying a happy and prosperous family life, with many friends both Jewish and non-Jewish, participating in extensive leisure and sporting activities. They were not religious, but her parents were concerned that their children acquire some basic Jewish knowledge. This life came to an abrupt end, when in September 1938 on the eve of the Nazi invasion of the Sudetenland, she and her parents left Trautenau overnight for the Czech border where they lodged in a hotel for a few days. Lily's brother, born in 1919, had already decided to leave the country for Palestine and his story of survival is told in some detail. The family moved to Prague having found a small apartment and where her father subsequently set up a new business. Her grandmother joined them. Lily, no longer at school and being the only Czech speaker in the family was kept busy dealing with the bureaucracy, shopping and other chores to assist her parents. ; The German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 brought increasingly harsh restrictions on the Jews, and on August 6th 1942 Lily and family were ordered to report to the Trade Fair hall where they were forced to wait with over 1,000 other people for four days. Coming from a comfortable, sheltered home Lily speaks of her extreme shock at the insanitary and crowded conditions, which were even more dire on the long train journey to Theresienstadt where they made ammunition boxes. There, she and her parents survived near starvation and the oppressive physical conditions until the camp's liberation in 1945. Her grandmother died after a few days of natural causes. She describes the spirit of camaraderie and mutual help among her fellow inmates and attaches great importance to her father's optimism in enabling the family to survive. But they lived with constant uncertainty and fear. She describes events that instilled in her feelings of dread for many years afterwards, but also the sudden, fleeting, improvement in conditions designed to impress the Red Cross. In 1945 Lily applied to work in the bakery which had to produce large quantities of baked goods for the departing Germans. This enabled her get bread to her parents, but when the camp was liberated by the Soviet Army, she was ordered to stay in this job for some time as so many people needed feeding. She mentions survivors of Auschwitz who were brought back to Theresienstadt, many of who died then of typhoid. Her parents were able to leave, and returning temporarily to Prague and then to Trautenau, where their house had been requisitioned first by the Gestapo and then by the Russians. The family were finally able to move back in on condition that they paid rent. ; In the town they were received with hostility due to their Austrian origin. Her father was again able to start a business, but in 1948 decided that they could not live under a Communist regime, and they moved to Vienna. Lily was unhappy there and her parents allowed her to travel to London where her brother lived. By the following year she had met and married her husband, with whom she lived happily in London until his death in 1998. She credits him with helping her to overcome her fears. They were unable to have children. Her parents stayed in Vienna where her father had again established a small business. They were friends with other Jewish survivors who had returned to Vienna. Lily still enjoys a lively social life in London, and played tennis for many years. She understands the importance of Holocaust education and is active in speaking to school-children, Jewish and non-Jewish. She supports the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Nottingham. She has travelled to Czechoslovakia with her nephew and his children to visit her hometown and Theresienstadt. While she would never visit Germany, she feels that the younger generation of Germans cannot be blamed, but is concerned about current manifestations of antisemitism in Europe. Her general outlook on life is one of optimism and determination to never give in.