Easter holidays in Brno

April 1938. In yard of family home in Brno (regional capital of Moravia), Hlínky 35, young Michaela (age 3) and her brother Antonín (age 2) hunt for Easter eggs in 1938. They are dressed similarly in checkered jackets. They play in the garden, with the toys. 01:01:01 Michael Eckstein stands beside a nanny, and Michaela pulls the wheeled animal toys. 01:01:13 Side view of Antonín kneeling with the toy bunny in the grass. 01:01:37 Michael walks hand-in-hand with his son Antonín. More of the family in the garden celebrating the Easter holidays. Cut. 01:02:12 Michaela holds a doll and plays with her brother Antonín outdoors on the balcony (probably Miki’s 3rd birthday). She tries to get him to smell a tulip. They play with toys and take turns sitting in a toy car. A nurse lifts Antonín out of the car. End 01:04:23 Antonie (Toni) Eckstein-Bloch was adopted by Františka Kapoun (1873–1931), a Catholic housekeeper for the Bloch family. Toni’s first husband Emerich Schmeer (married in 1917) was killed in WW1 when he had to return to the battlefields. After the death of her step-father, Leopold Bloch, in March 1933, Toni became the successor of the Bloch properties in Brno and Veverská Bítýška. She married Leopold's close friend, Dr. Michael Eckstein, a Jew who was nearly 20 years her senior in March 1934. Toni and Michael lived primarily in two homes: Hlínky 35 (a prestigious boulevard with tram connections to the center of Brno in a bourgeois neighborhood) and the summer residence at Veverská Bítýška [Eichhorn-Bitischka] 238. Both properties are prominently pictured in Toni's films. Toni and Michael had two children, Michaela (born April 27, 1935) and Antonín (born October 19, 1936). Michael chose to move away from his Catholic wife, Toni, and the children on August 14, 1940 in order to protect the family. They officially divorced on September 19, 1940. In the last years of war Toni and the children stayed in Veverska Bityska, where they survived. Michael Ekstein was born in Galicia in 1873 and moved to Brno (Brünn) as a child. He was a lawyer. He and his wife, Antonie (Toni) Eckstein-Bloch (married in 1934) lived in Brno at Hlínky 35. In an effort to save his Catholic wife and children, Michaela (b. 1935) and Antonín (b. 1936), After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Michael divorced Toni in September 1940 and relocated to their home in Brno at Zeile 12. He maintained correspondence with his wife and children. Michael was deported to Terezin in April 1942 on transport Ai, č. 226 (08. 04. 1942, Brno -> Terezín https://www.holocaust.cz/databaze-obeti/obet/81503-michal-eckstein/) and died there on August 12, 1942. Toni and the children survived in Veverská Bítýška.