Description
Physical description
leather suitcase, bearing the number 575 painted in green.The handle is missing.
Label
Milena was an only child in an assimilated Jewish family in Prague. When the Nazis annexed Czechoslovakia, her mother desperately tried to arrange for the family to emigrate to England. A friend she already knew there offered both parents jobs, which they gratefully accepted. Milena, aged six and a half, travelled ahead on a Kindertransport organised by Sir Nicholas Winton in July 1939. Her parents, with permits to travel on 15 September, were trapped when the war broke out. Milena was fostered by the English friend and her family throughout the war, and was adopted by them when they learned that her parents had been murdered by the Nazis.
Her parents were deported to Terezin and then to Auschwitz. Milena's mother taught in a secret nursery school after all education had been stopped for Jews. Her father was obliged to move furniture from homes already looted and emptied of people by the Nazis. All the Czechs were herded into a corner of Auschwitz Birkenau and this was called 'The Czech Family Camp', and shown to the International Red Cross to demonstrate what good conditions the Germans were providing. But on March 6 and 7 1944 all the Czechs were gassed together. Milena was allowed two suitcases as her travelling allowance in one case her mother packed the family linens, embroidered lace tablecloths made by her and monogramed sheets and pillowcases from her wedding. In the other case Milena packed books, toys, clothes but always felt that she had chosen the wrong things.
History note
Milena was an only child in an assimilated Jewish family in Prague. When the Nazis annexed Czechoslovakia, her mother desperately tried to arrange for the family to emigrate to England. A friend she already knew there offered both parents jobs, which they gratefully accepted. Milena, aged six and a half, travelled ahead on a Kindertransport organised by Sir Nicholas Winton in July 1939. Her parents, with permits to travel on 15 September, were trapped when the war broke out. Milena was fostered by the English friend and her family throughout the war, and was adopted by them when they learned that her parents had been murdered by the Nazis.
Her parents were deported to Terezin and then to Auschwitz. Milena's mother taught in a secret nursery school after all education had been stopped for Jews. Her father was obliged to move furniture from homes already looted and emptied of people by the Nazis. All the Czechs were herded into a corner of Auschwitz Birkenau and this was called 'The Czech Family Camp', and shown to the International Red Cross to demonstrate what good conditions the Germans were providing. But on March 6 and 7 1944 all the Czechs were gassed together. Milena was allowed two suitcases as her travelling allowance in one case her mother packed the family linens, embroidered lace tablecloths made by her and monogramed sheets and pillowcases from her wedding. In the other case Milena packed books, toys, clothes but always felt that she had chosen the wrong things.
Painted in green
575