A Life Well Lived
 

By Josh Temes
Gunn High School

For most of us, life proceeds relatively normally. Most people are born into an intact family and raised in a secure environment. But there is a period in our history when people were denied this security, peace, and happiness. Denise Kopecky’s incredible story of survival reminds us of a tumultuous span of time when the world was turned upside down.<

Life in Small-Town Slovakia

Denise Miriam Kopecky was born August 22, 1941, to the recently married Hugo and Alica Elbert. Hugo had a business degree and sold and purchased items for stores, while Alica taught music. Denise and her parents, along with her father's parents, lived in an antique home in the center of Nemecka Lupca, a small city located in Slovakia. The bottom floor of the home was a general store run by Denise’s parents, while the top floor was the living quarters. In the town of about 3,000, Denise's family was part of a small community of Jews, and when the local Nazis took power, her family’s home was often ruthlessly raided. Collaborators would take whatever they wanted from Denise’s house and write her family receipts for the stolen goods. As World War II continued to ravage Europe, it wasn't long before notices of deportation came. June 2, 1942, was a day that would change Denise’s and her family’s lives forever.

Saved from Deportation

Shortly before the required deportation of their entire family, Denise's grandmother and grandfather were able to secure an order to stay in their town and run the family business. However, Denise’s parents were not so lucky. On the day of departure, the town organized a goodbye event. Gypsy music played in the background while locals said goodbye to their Jewish neighbors, who boarded trains to unknown destinations. The reason for the mass deportation of Slovak Jews was the government’s belief that Jews were ruining the economy. Slovakia hastily paid Germany 500 Deutsche marks per Jew deported to cover “settlement costs.”[1] As one spokesperson said, “It is necessary to consider the Jews as not only an alien element but a permanent enemy of the Slovak State.” [2]  Slovakia had fallen under the evil spell of Hitler.         

Denise's parents were being deported to Sobibor, a death camp located in occupied Poland. As Alica Elbert boarded the train with infant Denise, she had an idea. Since Jews were not allowed to have anything of value, Alica quickly wrapped Denise up in a fur coat and whisked Denise off the train. Alica frantically looked for a person to give Denise to and finally found an old friend in the crowd, a woman named Maria Bella. Maria was originally from Slovakia, but had immigrated to the United States. The Great Depression led Maria and her family to return to Slovakia. Maria, aware of the consequences of being Jewish, quickly took Denise to a Lutheran minister and had her baptized on the spot. Since Jews weren't allowed to talk to or care for Christians, Denise's grandmother promptly denounced her Judaism and converted to Christianity to bring Denise home. Although Denise and her grandparents were able to escape the Nazis for a brief period, the rest of her family wasn’t so lucky.       

Denise and Melanie on Their Own

The Nazis killed Denise’s entire immediate and extended family, sparing only her, her uncle, grandmother, and second cousin. After the deportation of her parents, Denise lived solely with her grandmother, Melanie, and grandfather, Gejza, while they ran the family general store. Two months later, having seen his family deported and strict laws passed against the Jews, Gejza passed away in the store from a heart attack or stroke, leaving only Denise and her grandmother. Shortly afterward, a local Nazi collaborator was appointed to take over the family store. Since Slovakia was occupied by Germany, people of German origin were given priority for assuming Jewish businesses.

Into the Mountains

After a German woman took over the store, Melanie realized it was no longer safe to live in town. There were too many threats. She promptly went into hiding in the nearby mountains with Denise. Along with other scattered families, they hid in the mountains for about a year. Little huts, underground caves, and natural surroundings created a home for the displaced people, while friendly villagers from nearby towns often brought food. Berries that had been picked and, occasionally, rabbits that had been shot supplemented these handouts.

When asked about the snow, Denise said, "Oh [you] better believe!"[3] Those in hiding were inundated with up to two meters of snow, which created horrible living conditions. Lumberjacks going up and down the mountain provided communication, and eventually Melanie got a letter from Julia Weigner, the German woman running her store. Julia said that they shouldn’t suffer any longer, that they should come down from the mountains, and that they would be under her personal protection. Denise remembers that Melanie was very gullible, as well as concerned about Denise’s health, so she decided to listen to Julia and come down from the mountains. Melanie and Denise received a ride with the loggers to return home. Two weeks after their arrival, however, Julia denounced them to the local Nazi party, and Denise and her Melanie were quickly deported to Terezin.

Betrayed to the Nazis

SMACK! The cracking of the cane reverberated as the Gestapo officer struck Denise’s grandmother. "You Jewish swine, keep your child under control!" he muttered. That was their introduction to Terezin. After being sent to two collection camps, Denise and Melanie arrived at the infamous Theresienstadt concentration camp. Melanie had all kinds of assignments in the camp: from peeling potatoes and sewing to working in a hospital. "God knows what else," Denise said.

Denise was housed in the children’s camp. She shared a bed with Egon, a boy from her hometown, with whom she is still in contact today. While interred in Terezin, Denise's grandmother was able to visit Denise most Sundays, and after about a year in the camp, they were liberated by the advancing Soviet army. Denise and her grandmother were lucky to get out alive. Only about 16,000 of the original 139,000 inhabitants of Terezin survived until liberation.[4] Denise was now almost 4 years old.

Following liberation, the only thing keeping Denise and her grandmother at Terezin was a simple shoe. Denise had arrived at Terezin with two beautiful, unique baby blue shoes. However, when it was time to leave the camp, Denise could find only one shoe! Her grandmother spent half a day searching through rags, desperately looking for the other one. Finally, it was time to board the trains to leave. The second shoe was never found. It then took an entire week to travel back by train, since the railroads had been bombed and often had to be rebuilt along the way. Sympathetic villagers often threw food into the carriages when the train stopped.

Return to Small-Town Life

After coming back to Nemecka Lupca, Denise’s life began to return to normal. Every morning, as she headed to school, the woman who helped ruin Denise’s life, who denounced her to the Nazis, patted Denise on the head and said, “My poor  little orphan. How are you doing?” Denise’s grandmother was seething, and often spat at the woman.

Even after the war had ended, anti-Semitism was still very commonplace. The store her grandmother now ran was often marred with the words “Jews, get out of here.” Some town members were horrible toward Denise, but she didn’t take their harassment seriously. Denise remained a Christian after the war and often attended church on Sundays because her grandmother didn’t want her to be confused. During her confirmation ceremony, Denise, like every other child, was asked by the priest, “Who killed Jesus Christ?” “The Jews did,” Denise was forced to reply. One day, during middle school, Denise was invited to go ice skating on a local pond. However, some high school boys decided to play “Drown the Jew” and pushed Denise into the freezing water. Fortunately, a local farmer pulled her out before anything worse could happen. Denise attended middle school and a humanities high school in a neighboring town, and eventually headed off to medical school in Prague. Here began a whirlwind escape from behind the Iron Curtain.

Escape from the Iron Curtain

Only four days after her graduation from medical school, Denise and her boyfriend, Joe, decided to escape the country. As her grandmother said, “You have no future here, you have no life here.” Since Denise and Joe were only allowed to get a permit to go on vacation to Bulgaria, they decided to start their trip there. After their arrival in Belgrade, the train stopped to change engines and they hopped off. They met up with the local Jewish community, which helped them to get visas to Italy. During the three weeks it took for the visas to arrive, they were forced to lie low. The Jewish community continued to supply food, and the visas finally arrived. Denise and Joe took the overnight train to a little city, and were again met by a member of the local Jewish community.  After a six-week wait, they were able to board the elegant Israeli cruise ship named the Theodore Herzl, with tickets paid for by the Israeli immigration agency. The ship was full of elegant cruisers, and Denise had only one dress, which had been bought for $5!

After arrival in Israel, both Denise and Joe attended an absorption center, where they learned Hebrew for six months. Denise got a job at a hospital, but despite Joe’s doctoral degree, many companies were wary of his background and simply stated, “We don’t need Czech spies here.” Eventually, he left. In 1971, Denise decided it was finally time to visit her only relatives in the United States. She came to visit her uncle in New York. Upon her arrival, she learned of a young man from Slovakia who was looking to meet someone. Denise met with the man, and a flurry of love letters and phone calls began. She and this man, Richard, ended up getting married in the United States. 

After moving around, Denise eventually settled in Silicon Valley, started her residency at Stanford Medical School, and eventually became a respected doctor. She has a son, now 33 years old, and is still an incredible and inspiring woman.

Endnotes

Bibliography

Denise Kopecky. Interview by Josh Temes. Jan - Feb 2011.

Dugoborski, Wacaw. The Tragedy of the Jews of Slovakia. Auschwitz – Birkenau State  Museum, 2002.

Kirschbaum, Stanislav. A History of Slovakia – The struggle for Survival. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1995.

Scrapbookpages. “Death Statistics for Ghetto Theresienstadt.” Last modified November 24, 2007. Accessed March 9, 2011. http://www.scrapbookpages.com/czechrepublic/theresienstadt/theresienstadtghetto/history/DeathStatistics.html.

Left Column Image: 

Right Column Image

Display Update Image?: 

on

Right Column Image: