They asked us to raise our right arms, but I didn’t raise mine because I did not feel as though I was an Aryan
Eva Čapková was born in Královské Vinohrady in Prague on August 11, 1930 as Eva Sternschussová. Her father was a Jew, and during World War II he had to sell his business. Nobody was allowed to offer him employment, and Eva and her brother Antonín were not allowed to study at school, due to their father‘s origin. In early 1945 their father was deported to Terezín and her brother spent ten months in a labour camp during the last year of the war. They both returned home safely when the war ended. Most of Eva‘s other relatives on her fathers‘ side were not so fortunate, and Eva has never seen them since before the war. In spring 1949 the Catholic grammar school which she attended was closed down immediately before she was to graduate; she was allowed to take her graduation examination at another school and she thus completed her secondary education. Today, Eva Čapková lives in Prague.