Zyta Eliahu - February 3, 2008
Introduction
Can you tell me your name please and where you were born?
Zyta Eliahu. I was born in Poland in Nadwórna in Galicia and as a baby I left with my parents for Czechoslovakia.
In Prague?
No, we lived in the Sudeten area of Czechoslovakia, which had a large German minority.
What was the city in the Sudetenland?
It's Bodenbach in German and Podmokly in Czech.
And this was where the Germans first occupied--the Sudetenland.
That's right.
Um, can you tell me a little bit what life was like before the war and before the Germans came?
Yes, it, it was, it was very nice in Czechoslovakia. After it was established--after the First World War it was a very liberal country, industrial and we had a very good life, I with my parents. My father was working in the Jewish community. He had an administrative job and my parents spoke Yiddish at home, they spoke German with me and they sent me to a Czech kinder...kindergarten which, so I really didn't learn Czech very well until I was seven. By that time I knew Czech very well.
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