Myers 1
Justin Myers
Mr. Savala
IB History
21 April 2015
Helga HoškováWeissová
Throughout the course of WWII, there has been a large majority of the Jewish population that were taken away from their homes and loved ones by the terrifying Nazi’s. During the
Holocaust, an event that not one Jewish person wants to ever recall upon; they would experience such labor that could lead to their possible death, while undergoing excruciating pain both mentally and physically. In addition, as a Jewish they would live day by day trying to survive on meals that wouldn’t suffice their hunger, eventually leading to extreme malnourishment.
Nevertheless, they were burned and exterminated from a series of camps controlled by the “all superior Nazi’s,” as a cause of their inability to manage the labor tasks they were given as a part of their daily lives. However, one Jewish lady Helga Weissova was able to escape during the time of horror and the extermination of the Jewish race. Helga Hoskova Weissova was born 1929 in the largest capital which is Prague. Helga later departed from her home and was transferred to Terezin at the age of 12 living her daily life there for 3 years before she was transferred to Auschwitz. As a young naive child, Helga wasn’t aware of the political issues and beliefs the Nazis came across towards the Jews. Helga had a passion of drawing where she would draw the world around her as she gave a broader spectrum of what she was experiencing during the Holocaust. As Helga began to grow and develop she wasn’t able to fully experience the ”normal childhood” as opposed to a child who wasn’t Jewish.
Myers 2
At a very young age, she had experienced that the world around her was slowly coming to an end, because the Nazis began to take her rights and others away, peace by peace. Long before the arrival of the Holocaust Helga witnessed that there would be absolute boredom with no activities to keep her and the other children occupied. Helga realized that the
Nazis restricted the Jews of their rights by forbidding them to work at their own jobs. During this controversial issue, she was no longer able play, nor be involved in any activities such as the park, swimming in the pool with her friends, or even be involved in sports clubs, where children her age would gather to play the sports that they had a passion for, "One thing after another was forbidden: employees lost their jobs, we were banned from the parks, swimming pools, sports clubs. I was banned from going to school when I was 10," (The Guardian). As Helga witnessed these certain events taking place, she wasn’t aware that she would soon become involved with the Holocaust.
Throughout her time she has survived numerous amounts of death situations where she was transferred to 4 different camps where she would do hard labor. At the age of only 12 years old Helga was taken away from her home, as she lived her daily life in Terezin for 3 years. In
Terezin she didn’t experience as much suffer likewise, she still had to undergo the guards cruel treatment, many times where she would be given small rations of food, and countless hours spent in the freezing weather when attendance was taking place. Helga had also witnessed many dead bodies on the ground, she would have to live day by day worrying where she would be transferred to because Terezin was known as the camp that would transfer many Jews to unknown places of torture and labor.
Helga however, was able to withstand those certain gruesome images and was able to look on the brighter sides of the situation
. Helga stated that she
Myers 3 learned how to love for the first time as well as spending as much time as possible with both of her parents, (The Guardian). Helga had a huge amount of determination to withstand the courses of torture to live, her father told her before he died that, “ whatever happens, we must remain human, so that we do not die
