some thirteen kilometres from the city of Hradec Králové in what was once the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hradec Králové, whose name translates as ‘Castle of the Queen’, is one of the oldest settlements in the Czech Republic and lies at the fertile confluence of the Elbe and Orlice rivers. It is a city also known for its grand pianos, manufactured by Antonin Petrof.
Cheerful and – by her own admission – a little spoiled, Anka was the baby of the Kauder family by several years and utterly adored by her parents, Stanislav and Ida, her older sisters Zdena and Ruzena, and her brother Antonin, known as ‘Tonda’. Another brother, Jan, aged three, had died of meningitis two years before Anka’s birth and her mother never quite recovered from the loss.
The family owned Kauder & Frankl, a successful tannery and leather factory in Třebechovice pod Orebem. It was co-owned with a relative of Ida’s named Gustav Frankl. Anka was three years old when her family relocated from a flat in Hradec to a large apartment at one end of the factory.
Kauder & Frankel was a sprawling C-shaped construction on a large plot of land. A new building, its tannery had a tall brick chimney that Anka, as a little girl, was always afraid was going to topple over and kill them. Their apartment had a garden and a patio with a gazebo and an outdoor oven for summer dining. They grewvegetables and tomatoes and plucked fruit from their own trees. The grounds were so big, in fact, that after her sister Ruzena married, she and her husband Tom Mautner hired renowned Prague architect Kurt Spielmann to design and build them a Bauhaus-style villa on the plot, where they lived happily for many years with their infant son Peter.
An avid reader, Anka would slip away into the family garden to devour her favourite Latin books and the classics, which she read in various languages. She shared her passion for reading with her brother Tonda, who was kind to his little sister and took her everywhere with him, especially to the football matches he was such a fan of and always returned from hoarse. ‘We had a marvellous relationship,’ she said. ‘He had a car and he took me on outings. Whenever we went dancing and my mother didn’t feel like going, he came with me and was always in the background and never intruded. I was taken care of because I had my brother with me.’
Anka’s mother Ida was unusual for her generation in that she worked behind the till in the family factory. A warm, chatty woman, she thrived on gossip shared with her largely female customers, who enjoyed confiding in her. With the matriarch at work every day, the family employed several staff including a maid, a cook, a gardener and a washerwoman. Ida made sure that they kept a clean house and took good care of the children.
‘My mother would have done anything for me,’ Anka said. ‘We had a beautiful relationship. Only the best was just good enough for us at home.’
Athletic, healthy and a strong swimmer, Anka became the schools junior backstroke champion for Czechoslovakia and swam in the local river – occasionally nude. Naturally bright, she was raised to think for herself and do as she pleased. At eleven years of age she left her idyllic childhood home to become one of the few Jews to attend the Girls Lyceum in Hradec Králové. She went on to do well at the Gymnasium where she took extra classes in Latin, German and English. ‘I lived in a pension in Hradec and went to theGymnasium and I was as happy as a lark. I had a lot of boyfriends and went dancing and to parties and everything went smoothly.’ Anka also learned to play the piano and to dance, as well as taking part in sports such as tennis and rowing.
Her father’s factory manufactured handbags and other goods for the mass market, and although Anka and her sisters often spurned his offers of free bags because they thought them too old-fashioned, she was proud of the new leather satchel she was given every few years
Cheerful and – by her own admission – a little spoiled, Anka was the baby of the Kauder family by several years and utterly adored by her parents, Stanislav and Ida, her older sisters Zdena and Ruzena, and her brother Antonin, known as ‘Tonda’. Another brother, Jan, aged three, had died of meningitis two years before Anka’s birth and her mother never quite recovered from the loss.
The family owned Kauder & Frankl, a successful tannery and leather factory in Třebechovice pod Orebem. It was co-owned with a relative of Ida’s named Gustav Frankl. Anka was three years old when her family relocated from a flat in Hradec to a large apartment at one end of the factory.
Kauder & Frankel was a sprawling C-shaped construction on a large plot of land. A new building, its tannery had a tall brick chimney that Anka, as a little girl, was always afraid was going to topple over and kill them. Their apartment had a garden and a patio with a gazebo and an outdoor oven for summer dining. They grewvegetables and tomatoes and plucked fruit from their own trees. The grounds were so big, in fact, that after her sister Ruzena married, she and her husband Tom Mautner hired renowned Prague architect Kurt Spielmann to design and build them a Bauhaus-style villa on the plot, where they lived happily for many years with their infant son Peter.
An avid reader, Anka would slip away into the family garden to devour her favourite Latin books and the classics, which she read in various languages. She shared her passion for reading with her brother Tonda, who was kind to his little sister and took her everywhere with him, especially to the football matches he was such a fan of and always returned from hoarse. ‘We had a marvellous relationship,’ she said. ‘He had a car and he took me on outings. Whenever we went dancing and my mother didn’t feel like going, he came with me and was always in the background and never intruded. I was taken care of because I had my brother with me.’
Anka’s mother Ida was unusual for her generation in that she worked behind the till in the family factory. A warm, chatty woman, she thrived on gossip shared with her largely female customers, who enjoyed confiding in her. With the matriarch at work every day, the family employed several staff including a maid, a cook, a gardener and a washerwoman. Ida made sure that they kept a clean house and took good care of the children.
‘My mother would have done anything for me,’ Anka said. ‘We had a beautiful relationship. Only the best was just good enough for us at home.’
Athletic, healthy and a strong swimmer, Anka became the schools junior backstroke champion for Czechoslovakia and swam in the local river – occasionally nude. Naturally bright, she was raised to think for herself and do as she pleased. At eleven years of age she left her idyllic childhood home to become one of the few Jews to attend the Girls Lyceum in Hradec Králové. She went on to do well at the Gymnasium where she took extra classes in Latin, German and English. ‘I lived in a pension in Hradec and went to theGymnasium and I was as happy as a lark. I had a lot of boyfriends and went dancing and to parties and everything went smoothly.’ Anka also learned to play the piano and to dance, as well as taking part in sports such as tennis and rowing.
Her father’s factory manufactured handbags and other goods for the mass market, and although Anka and her sisters often spurned his offers of free bags because they thought them too old-fashioned, she was proud of the new leather satchel she was given every few years
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