Prewar Czech Jewish life in Prague and Southern Bohemia

Home movies of the Lederer and Bruck families in Prague, Plana Nad Luznici, Pacov, and Stechovice, Czechoslovakia [Southern Bohemia]. (color) Landscape, family outside home in the mountains, Peter and Nina Lederer in a field of flowers, VAR shots of family members walking towards the camera, eating oranges, CU Ivan Rechts (cousin) squatting near house. 01:05:29 (black and white) Family swimming, tubing in the water. CUs, Nina and Peter. Family walking down road, stopping to pose. Eating at picnic table. Nina pushes Peter on a swing. 01:11:05 (color) Nina and an older girl jumping rope in a park in Prague in the springtime, flowers, women sitting on a bench, walking in park. CU, Rose (Bruck) Lederer (mother) on city street with tram in BG. 01:14:22 Crowds gathered in park at Chuchle for horse races, Czech flag, VAR shots of Nina and family. 01:16:04 (black and white) Peter and Nina swimming, tubing at beach, ducks. Lederer family walking from beach, Peter has a fishing pole. Cart with hay crosses bridge in small Czech village. Mother rubs baby oil on Peter, he has a bandage on his knee. Emily (Waldstein) Bruck (Peter and Nina's grandmother) with an umbrella. Rose knitting. Family swimming. Robert and Rose (Bruck) Lederer had two children, Nina (b. 1930) and Peter (b. ca. 1933). Robert died in a labor camp in Oranienburg. Rose and the children were sent to Terezin in Sept. 1942, and from there were deported to their death in Auschwitz on May 15, 1944. Rose could have been selected with Nina for work, but she refused to abandon Peter and insisted that all three remain together. As a result, they all perished. Emily (Waldstein) Bruck (Rose's mother) perished in Terezin in 1945. Paul and Blanka (Bruck) Heller (Rose's youngest sister) rented a room from Mr. Blazek in Plana after Jews were no longer allowed to work in Czechoslovakia. When the Hellers were sent to Terezin in 1942, Mr. Blazek hid the Bruck family home movies, pictures, vase, and figurines. Paul never returned from the front with the Czech Army; Blanka survived Auschwitz and retrieved the family heirlooms. Nina painted "Girl Looking Out Of The Window" in watercolor as a child in Terezin (Zidovske Muzeum v Praha, Drawing #129389). This drawing is published in "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" (Schocken Books).