Hanča's road

“AND ON 29 APRIL, AFTER A SIXTEEN-DAY JOURNEY, WE FINALLY STOOD AT THE STATION IN MAUTHAUSEN. STARVING, WE DRAGGED OURSELVES ONWARDS. BEFORE US WAS THE INFAMOUS STEEP ROAD LEADING UP TO THE CAMP. THAT IS HOW I REMEMBER IT, BECAUSE I WAS CERTAIN I WASN’T CAPABLE OF TAKING ANOTHER STEP. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE ARRIVING IN TEREZÍN, I WAS SURE THAT MY END HAD COME. THAT I COULDN’T ENDURE ANY MORE.”

Hana Sternlicht’s story combines the fates of two branching Jewish families—the Neumanns and the Kačers. Their plight is characteristic of the Jewish population in the Czech lands during the 20th century. The branches of these families were also brutally severed by Nazism and the Holocaust. However, unlike her parents, Hana Sternlicht was fortunate enough to survive the hellish journey from Holice in Eastern Bohemia, through Terezín and Auschwitz. And so her pilgrimage to freedom could continue even after the war, leading her to a new beginning in Israel. At her family's request, she has now decided to tell her story so that the era of the Holocaust will not fade from memory.