Czechoslovakia // Alena Divisova

Prague, Czechoslovakia… 1942 — After finishing school, Alena Divisova and Charlotte Bloch-Kostenbaum worked as apprentices in a dressmaker’s shop Prague, Czechoslavakia (now the Czech Republic). Charlotte was planning on emigrating to Palestine and was active in a Zionist youth group. Through Charlotte, Alena became friends with many young Jewish people. In 1942, nine of her Jewish friends decided not to report for deportations, but rather to go into hiding or pass as Christians.

Alena provided false identity documents to Charlotte and her friends so that they would be able to walk freely, work “legally,” and be eligible to receive food rations. On several occasions, Alena snuck into the Terezin ghetto to deliver food.

In the fall of 1943, Ernst Kruh, one of the nine who did not report for deportation, returned to Prague from Berlin. He brought Josef Matejicek, a friend that he had met in Berlin, whom the Gestapo had been looking for since 1939. Alena hid the two men for several months. Somehow the authorities learned of Alena’s aid to Josef and arrested her on March 28, 1944. She was imprisoned until May 1945.

Meanwhile, Erna Friesova, another of Alena’s nine friends, and three other Jewish girls, escaped a death transport and traveled back to Prague. Alena’s parents hid the four girls in their weekend hut on the outskirts of Prague.

Of the nine Jewish friends, two died in Auschwitz. The other seven survived the war. Alena is in her 80s and continues to live in Prague.