Anna, born on 26 November 1930 as the youngest child of Leo and Elisabeth Flach, née Kober, lived in Brno, when the Germans oocupied their homelands. There Anna received her first piano lessons and attended the renowned ballet school of Ivo Váňa-Psota with her sister Alice. A year later she took her first singing lessons - with one of the greatest masters in his field, Professor Sigmund Auspitzer, once the teacher of Maria Jeritza, the world-famous opera star from Brno. Her secure life ended on 15 March 1939. Her father's business was placed under the supervision of two 'Aryan trustees'. From that time on, hostilities increased and one unpleasant experience followed another. "Once two Germans in uniform walked past me and I saw one pointing at me and heard him say to the other: "Look at her. Such a beautiful girl. What a pity that she is a Jew. -That was terrible for me. What is bad about being a Jew?" she often would ask.
Theresienstadt.
The Girls of Room 28
Farewell to
Anna Hanusová, née Flachová (November 26, 1930 - April 30, 2014)
Anna Hanusová, our beloved "Flaška" (as her friends called her) died on 30 April 2014. She was and is the soul of our project of Remembrance. Everyone who met her knows: She was a wonderful person: charming, loving, full of empathy, vitality, spontaneity and humour. She opened up her heart to so many of us and toched so many hearts. The love she gave will live on.
Her poetry album and the diary of her friend Helga Pollak were at the beginning of our unique "joint-venture". How much has happened since 1996, since we first met for the first time in Prague and shortly afterwards in Brno! I am so grateful to Flaška. And I know: For thousands of people who got to know her in the years that followed the publication of the book and the first display of the exhibition feel the same. Flaška, you remain unforgettable!
Whenever she spoke about her experiences in Theresienstadt, she quoted words by Margit Mühlstein, the mother of Maria Mühlstein who lived in Room 28. Margit Mühlstein, a social-worker in Theresienstadt, just wrote the words into her album: Our years in Theresienstadt will have been for nothing if we ever oppress so much as a single person in our own life. And Flaska used to add: "This has become the motto of my life."
These words are one of the messages that will always be connected with Anna Hanusová, née Flachova. It has become a mission for her to keep alive the memory of the "Girls of Room 28", who were murdered in the Holocaust;.; not only for the sake of remembering, but because she associated with it a big wish and a hope. In her words: "I wish that with the memory of our friends and of the wonderful people who took care of us children, those human values that became so important for us will also live on: tolerance, compassion, education, culture, friendship and love."
That was terrible. What is bad about being a Jew? Even now I have the same strong, bitter feeling inside me when I think back on it. Or when I hear anti-Semitic statements. It hits me deeply. Stronger than hunger and other restrictions and prohibitions was this hatred we faced, the unjustified humiliation we were subjected to. That remains a whole life.
The Manifesto which you can read on the website of the association Room 28 is inspired by Flaška. The Room 28 association and our members and friends carry on the memory of Flaška and the "Girls of Room 28". I wished so much that you could see the seeds of your love that gave away so passionately, that touched so many hearts. Flaška, you left us much too soon!
Hannelore
