A talk with holocaust survivor Ruth Hálová

On April 10, scholars of the Bakala Foundation welcomed a special guest: Mrs Ruth Hálová, a person who survived holocaust thanks to Sir Nicolas Winton's astonishing efforts. See a short video of Mrs Hálová talking with students who were captured and deeply inspired by her personality and her active approach to life.

RNDr. Ruth Hálová, née Adlerová, was born on 26 February 1926 into a Jewish family in Český Krumlov. Her mother Zdeňka was of Czech-Jewish lineage, her father Leopold came from a German-speaking Jewish family. Ruth had one older sister, Eva. Her father died in 1926. Ruth attended a German primary school for five years, she then moved on to a German grammar school. In 1938 she was bullied at the grammar school because of her Jewish origin. The family moved to Protivín and then to Prague. Her mother realized the danger her daughters were in, and she therefore tried to get them sent abroad. She heard about Nicholas Winton's efforts, and she succeeded in getting both her daughters a seat on one of the "Winton trains". Thirteen-year-old Ruth left from Masaryk Station in Prague on 29 June 1939, and her sister Eva left for London from Wilson (now Main) Station in Prague on 2 August 1939. Ruth was taken in by the Jones family in Shirley near Birmingham. In 1940 she began attending primary school, and she helped her adoptive parents in their newsagent's shop. She then joined Rugby School near Coventry, where she lived with the Cleavers and later the Boags. Ruth Hálová completed secondary school and obtained an Oxford School Certificate. From 1943 she was employed in the pharmaceutical department in Rugby, but her adoptive parents requested she should continue her studies. Upon the recommendation of the Czechoslovak exile ministry of education and social affairs, she was awarded a place in a Czechoslovak school in Wales, where she passed her matriculation exam in April 1945. Her sister Eva worked as a nurse at Woodland Hospital. On 24 September 1945, Ruth returned to Czechoslovakia. Her mother had survived the war in Terezín concentration camp, by marrying her cousin Arnošt she managed to avoid being transported east. After the war Ruth Hálová undertook microbiology studies at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Prague, graduating in 1952. She worked in the diagnostic laboratory at Motol Hospital in Prague and later in sanatoriums in Carlsbad and Ústí nad Labem. She later moved to southern Bohemia, and she now lives in Holubov near Český Krumlov. (Ruth Hálová's bio - courtesy of Post Bellum - Memory of Nations project)