WE'RE ALIVE AND LIFE GOES ON: A THERESIENSTADT DIARY

Diary by Eva Roubíčková, 1998

There is no doubt that Eva Roubíčková has led a most interesting life. She spent her youth skiing and attending dances until the Nazis banned Jews from the ski slopes, dance halls, and schools. At the age of 20 she and her mother were sent with one of the first transports to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where life was much different and much more harsh. Her diary, We're Alive and Life Goes On: A Theresienstadt Diary (1998), relates the day-to-day existence of a young woman trapped in a life she did not ask for. She describes circumstances surrounding herself, her friends, and her family, and, although Roubíčková does not possess the literary skills of other Holocaust writers, this diary contains useful information about life in a concentration camp. Daily existence consisted of seeking work or working, waiting to see who would be next to be transported to the East, and moving from barrack to barrack with little to no notice. Roubíčková's writing style is typical of that of a young person; it is not complicated, yet it is straightforward in its descriptions of daily life in Theresienstadt.

The forward to the diary was written by Virginia Euwer Wolf, who says of the work, "Eva Roubíčková didn't build her diary like a story, with a series of characters and plot developments leading to a climax. Instead, she tried to keep track of the days as they went threateningly by." Roubíčková, who survived the war, has also included an introduction and an afterword to the diary, both of which provide the reader with a good foundation for understanding the before and after of her Theresienstadt life. The diary covers the years 1941 to 1945, and the suspense mounts with every passing day and year. Who will be coming into the camp? Will today be the day for transport to the East, to Poland, the Land of No Return? The reader is left to speculate with Roubíčková each day. As a young person with a magnetic personality, however, Roubíčková amazingly managed to find many non-Aryans who were drawn to her, including her rescuer, Karel Košvanec, who smuggled her supplies and ultimately rescued her from the ghetto during a typhus outbreak in 1945.

At the back of the diary is a list of the family members and friends mentioned within the work. Zaia Alexander, who translated the work from its original German shorthand, has also described Theresienstadt in her translator's note. Maps of the ghetto are included, and Roubíčková's black-and-white photos of her friends, family, and activities lend more personal appeal to the work. Especially interesting are the photos of her prewar life, for they show the great contrast between what was and what will be for the European Jews.

A comparison can be made between We're Alive and Life Goes On: A Theresienstadt Diary with the diary of Anne Frank. Granted, Frank was living in Holland in close, cramped quarters with the same people each day, while Roubíčková was forced to deal with change every day. Indeed, it was rare for Roubíčková to live more than just a few days with the same people in the barracks. Frank had more time to study her roommates in depth, but Roubíčková's life was in a constant state of flux. Nevertheless, both diaries capture the essence of young girls living in extraordinary times and experiencing unthinkable circumstances. Like Frank's diary, We're Alive and Life Goes On: A Theresienstadt Diary is recommended for high school-age students and beyond for introductory courses on the Holocaust. Both diaries are remarkable in that the authors lived through a horrific time in history, but, unlike Frank, Roubíčková survived to adulthood, married, and had children.

—Cynthia A. Klíma