Věra Kohnová

Věra Kohnová (1929–1942) was a Jewish girl from Czechoslovakia. She wrote a diary about her feelings and about events during the Nazi occupation. Her diary was published in 2006 and in 2023.

Kohnová was born in Plzeň in 1929, into the family of Otakar Kohn, an accountant in the Teller company. At the age of twelve she began keeping a diary. She wrote in it for five months, during which time the situation of her family and other Jews in Plzeň gradually worsened. She didn't describe the fate of the Jews at the time but wrote mainly about her personal feelings. The last entry in her diary is, "We are here just tomorrow and after tomorrow, who knows what will be then. Bye-bye, my diary!".

On 22 January 1942, the family was put on transport "S" to Theresienstadt. The last record of Vêra Kohnová comes from 11 March, when she left Theresienstadt on a transport for another Nazi camp in Izbica—a transfer station to the extermination camps. She arrived about two (2) days later on 13 March. Although she and her family did not survive, her diary was hidden by Marie Kalivodová and Miroslav Matouš for 65 years.

In 2006, the diary was published as a book in Czech, English and German (Czech title: Deník - Věra Kohnová, English title: The Diary of Vera Kohnova, German title: Das Tagebuch der Vera Kohnova), ISBN 80-86057-40-2. In 2023, the diary was published again, completed with newly discovered facts (Czech title: Deník Věrky Kohnové", ISBN 978-80-267-2428-5).

References

Věra Kohnová Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA