Object numberM1996/010:014
DescriptionCorrespondence between friends who met in Auschwitz: Renee Konstant writes to Hanuska (Hana Lipa), 6 February 1946.
She makes mention of some of the difficulties suffered by Holocaust survivors after liberation such as having inadequate clothing, swollen hands etc. "My hands and feet are also more swollen then they were in the camp, I also have no periods yet. I have been to the doctor. He told it will all still come back. From (due to) the camp, all my glands are swollen. I am getting injections which made me very fat. You should have seen me when I returned to Vienna. My hair fell out by the handful ('in a bundle'). I looked like a plucked chicken. Thank God that this is now better. As far as clothing is concerned, I now have a (two-part) costume, one winter dress, one with short sleeves and two summer dresses. Slowly but surely! With shoes it is bad, there I have one pair up to the knee (no 40) as in the camp and one pair ordinary shoes which actually is not enough. Worst off I am with stockings. I still have only the 2 pair long ones from the camp and two pairs of socks. In that respect I am desperate. That’s one reason I also can’t go dancing."
Part of a collection of photographs, medical records, identity documents, postcards, letters, 1943 pocket book, hand-made leather book mark, deportation slips and yellow cloth Star of David donated by Hana Novotny (nee Lipa).
Hana Novotny (nee Lipa) was born 29 September 1926 in Jaromer, Czechoslovakia. She died 2011, aged 85, in Sydney, Australia. Her adolescence was marred by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. She and her family were affected by the antisemitism, daily deprivations and exclusion from mainstream Czech society as experienced by all Jews under the German yoke.
1940 was a turbulent year for 14-year-old Hana. Due to the Nazi’s segregationist decrees, she was prohibited from attending school, her father was arrested, and her mother died from cancer. Hana and her father—Jaroslav Lipa, were deported to the Theresienstadt “camp-ghetto” on 10 August 1942. She was employed in a leather factory making small money purses, wallets and bill holders. She made a book mark for her father, from the luggage the Germans confiscated from ghetto inmates. He never received it, having perished 10 September 1943 in Charles Square Police Prison, Prague, age 44. Hana was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. ‘Selected’ and fit for work she was sent to the Frauenlager (Women’s camp). There she forged life-sustaining relationships with Renee Konstant and Zdenka Loukova. These girls became her Lager Schwestern (camp sisters).
On 4 July 1944 they were transported to various labour camps in Upper Silesia. Hana found work and life to be particularly arduous, suffering hunger, back-breaking labour, continuous air raids, and the cruelty of female SS guards. Finally, they were transported to Bergen-Belsen. Conditions in the camp were horrific. She contracted typhoid fever and was severely ill for months. When she was well enough, she returned home to Jaromer in mid-July 1945 desperate for news about the fate of her family. Her moods varied, “up and down”, she vacillated from “hope to despair.” Her greatest fear— facing life alone, was allayed when she married Oldrich Novotny. She migrated to Sydney Australia in 1948.
She makes mention of some of the difficulties suffered by Holocaust survivors after liberation such as having inadequate clothing, swollen hands etc. "My hands and feet are also more swollen then they were in the camp, I also have no periods yet. I have been to the doctor. He told it will all still come back. From (due to) the camp, all my glands are swollen. I am getting injections which made me very fat. You should have seen me when I returned to Vienna. My hair fell out by the handful ('in a bundle'). I looked like a plucked chicken. Thank God that this is now better. As far as clothing is concerned, I now have a (two-part) costume, one winter dress, one with short sleeves and two summer dresses. Slowly but surely! With shoes it is bad, there I have one pair up to the knee (no 40) as in the camp and one pair ordinary shoes which actually is not enough. Worst off I am with stockings. I still have only the 2 pair long ones from the camp and two pairs of socks. In that respect I am desperate. That’s one reason I also can’t go dancing."
Part of a collection of photographs, medical records, identity documents, postcards, letters, 1943 pocket book, hand-made leather book mark, deportation slips and yellow cloth Star of David donated by Hana Novotny (nee Lipa).
Hana Novotny (nee Lipa) was born 29 September 1926 in Jaromer, Czechoslovakia. She died 2011, aged 85, in Sydney, Australia. Her adolescence was marred by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. She and her family were affected by the antisemitism, daily deprivations and exclusion from mainstream Czech society as experienced by all Jews under the German yoke.
1940 was a turbulent year for 14-year-old Hana. Due to the Nazi’s segregationist decrees, she was prohibited from attending school, her father was arrested, and her mother died from cancer. Hana and her father—Jaroslav Lipa, were deported to the Theresienstadt “camp-ghetto” on 10 August 1942. She was employed in a leather factory making small money purses, wallets and bill holders. She made a book mark for her father, from the luggage the Germans confiscated from ghetto inmates. He never received it, having perished 10 September 1943 in Charles Square Police Prison, Prague, age 44. Hana was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. ‘Selected’ and fit for work she was sent to the Frauenlager (Women’s camp). There she forged life-sustaining relationships with Renee Konstant and Zdenka Loukova. These girls became her Lager Schwestern (camp sisters).
On 4 July 1944 they were transported to various labour camps in Upper Silesia. Hana found work and life to be particularly arduous, suffering hunger, back-breaking labour, continuous air raids, and the cruelty of female SS guards. Finally, they were transported to Bergen-Belsen. Conditions in the camp were horrific. She contracted typhoid fever and was severely ill for months. When she was well enough, she returned home to Jaromer in mid-July 1945 desperate for news about the fate of her family. Her moods varied, “up and down”, she vacillated from “hope to despair.” Her greatest fear— facing life alone, was allayed when she married Oldrich Novotny. She migrated to Sydney Australia in 1948.
Production date 1946-02-06
Subjectsigns of life, shortages, health, liberation
Object nameletters
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 215.00 mm
height: 306.00 mm
Language
- German 6.2.1946
My Hanuška!
I can not tell you how overjoyed I was with your letter of the 27th January ’46 which I received today.
I just want to tell you with this that I am still thinking in Czech but for lack of practice have started to forget it. I intend to take lessons now.
What you are writing me about Luise does not surprise me, you know my opinion of her: a pleasant person but egotistic through and through. I had already thought along those lines because she came to Czechoslovakia already knowing that Pepek was dead. She must have thought there was some advantage to be derived from that. So yes, that’s how life is! Disappointments! I am happy to know that Zdenka is so capable, the two of you are the only ones for whom I have real feelings. I have sympathy for your situation every time you write me about it, as if I were as involved as you are. Unfortunately this is not the case. By the way I have discovered that according to my birth certificate…
(Page 2)
…I had, until the third year of my life Czechoslovakian nationality (through my father). Hami, you are making a mistake if you think I am more stupid than you. Yet at least you already know what you want to do in contrast to me who doesn’t feel like doing anything and doesn’t know what to do with herself in the future. Here and there I go to the cinema, I have no company. (Ditta is engaged, therefore does not need me!). I did learn to dance but to go to a place myself is boring. I am not very good at it and the public is atrocious everywhere. The girls are disgusting. The give everything for chocolate and chewing gum. The “strong gender” of course labours accordingly.
How often do I wish just to sit by your bed with Zdena and gossip and to properly feel again that we belong together. (Even though we did fight occasionally) Nowadays we realize that was due to tensions and constant nerves that we behaved that way. Wasn’t that so!
(Page 3)
Here it is also very cold. Until now we got 150 kg of wood for heating. My hands and feet are also more swollen then they were in the camp, I also have no “periods” yet. I have been to the doctor. He told it will all still come back from (due to) the camp, that all my glands are swollen. I am getting injections which made me very fat. You should have seen me when I returned to Vienna. My hair fell out by the handful (“in a bundle”). I looked like a plucked chicken. Thank God that this is now better. As far as clothing is concerned, I now have a (two-part) costume, one winter dress, one with short sleeves and two summer dresses. Slowly but surely! With shoes it is bad, there I have one pair up to the knee (no 40) as is the camp and one pair ordinary shoes which actually is not enough. Worst off I am with stockings. I still have only the 2 pair long ones from the camp and two pairs of socks. In that respect I am desperate. That’s one reason I also can’t go dancing.
(Page 4)
But it does not matter, it will pass. Thinking needs to be discontinued or you go nuts. It is good that Olly and Jirka have made an appearance. Susi Lamber is in Sweden, doing well. Ditta PCHRANIEK has died, her sister is here. Thanks for the greetings from all the girls. I am always happy to hear from them. Sending them my regards. Please make enquiries about Lilli BEKAREK. I think she finished up in Sweden. I would like to take up contact with her. I owe her so much! Please look well after yourself and when it gets cold don’t be embarrassed to wind a woollen shawl around your torso. Health is more important than anything else. I won’t be telling you about my Christmas, only what with you in the concentration camp they were 1,000 times more beautiful. Poor Hermand (dentist), I feel it directly how painful it was. The main thing is that it is past. The boy I thought I liked is now well in the past, I was only 14 or 15 years old then. It is so far away and so long ago now.
(Page 5)
Soon it will be like a fairy tale. I know only too well how important it is to have a man, seeing I have no one here in Vienna! Inferiority complexes I have certainly more than you. I am alone and you know well how I hate that. I am looking forward to get a photo of you. When I will have a good one of myself, I shall send it to you as well. Why is Zdena not writing? She has my address, it makes me sad.
Please forgive my handwriting, I can’t change it, my hand works like that. Don’t hand this letter to graphologist, I don’t think anything good would result.
Everything dear and good from always yours,
Renee
Write right away!
Best regards to Editka without knowing her. If she is pleasant to you I find her sympathetic “unbenoundst”
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Ms. Hana Novotny