Doris Broulova

Prepared by the Witnesses of War team

Doris Broulová, born Doris Fleischnerová on 16 September 1929 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, was a child when Nazi persecution transformed her life. On 3 August 1942, she was deported with her mother Alice and older brother Harry to the Terezín ghetto. Her mother died there on 6 December 1942.

On 18 May 1944, Doris was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau aboard transport Eb, under transport number 1179. During a selection conducted by Josef Mengele, she recalled claiming to be twenty-nine so that she would be considered fit for work. She survived the selection, but her brother was murdered.

Doris was subsequently sent to Hamburg, where she performed forced labour clearing rubble after Allied bombing raids. She later endured a death march to Bergen-Belsen, where British troops liberated her on 15 April 1945. Seriously ill with typhus, she returned to Prague only in July 1945, after receiving treatment.

Having lost her mother, brother and maternal grandparents, Doris rebuilt her life with help from family friends. She studied commerce and textiles, married in 1954, and settled in Nová Paka, Czech Republic, where they raised their son.