Eva Meislova's brother Rudolf Bohm

This is a picture of my brother Rudolf Bohm. The photo was taken in Tabor in 1940. He finished a Czech gymnasium but wasn't allowed to continue the studies then because of his Jewish origin. He was a boy scout when he was small. We had an average relationship, just like an older brother and younger sister tend to have. I remember I was crying when he refused to dance with me at dancing courses. My mum said to me, 'Don't cry and be glad that you have enough other suitors.' Rudolf was a very handsome and smart boy. He was the educational type and wanted to become a psychiatrist. Rudolf was the member of a hakhsharah. He spent two summers with them training in agriculture work. They lived there together and shared the money they earned. It was kind of a kibbutz life. The next year, that was either in 1940 or in 1941, my brother was already sent to forced labor. He worked on the river regulation in Sezimovo Usti. He was also working as a manual laborer when Bata started to build houses in our region. My brother was deported to Terezin in November 1942. He worked in agriculture first and later in the Kinderheim [children's home]. He was transported to the Auschwitz in December 1943, and in June 1944 to Schwarzheide concentration camp together with Jiri, my future husband. Jiri said that Rudolf had been too weak to join the first death march and that he stayed in the camp. He then joined the second march but he was too weak. Jirka Frankl wrote to us that he was with him and that Rudolf had some cigarettes and wanted to change them for some food but without success. All the prisoners were weak and Rudolf didn't want to hold them up, so he sat down on the side of a ditch and was shot.