Ann Mrazkova with relatives on vacation in Austria

This photo is from a vacation in Austria, in Kruppendorf. The lady with the parasol is Aunt Alterova, the wife of my mother's oldest brother - Jiri Alter. Both ladies sitting beside her are her sisters. I was four, I?m that little girl sitting second from the right in the photo. Sitting on my right is my cousin Arnost, who the Germans arrested for illegal activities when the transports weren?t going yet, he was the first of the family to die, even before we were deported. At the far left is my cousin Bedrich Alter, who left for Palestine. Third from the left is my cousin Erika. When Hitler came to Czechoslovakia, Uncle Jiri got an offer to go work at an observatory in England. He took the offer, and left with his family for safety. In England Uncle Jiri's daughter, my cousin Erika, wanted to join the Czechoslovak army, but as they didn't take women she joined the English one. She learned perfect English, so even native Englishmen couldn't understand why it said in her passport that she was a Czechoslovak citizen, they couldn't believe that she wasn't a native Englishwoman.