Auschwitz survivor, author, and Holocaust educator Zdenka Fantlova has died at the age of 100, it has been announced.
Zdenka survived six separate Nazi concentration camps, but lost most of her family, including her fiancé Arno, who made a ring out of tin as a symbol of their engagement they day before he was deported from the Terezin Ghetto, never to be seen again.
Paying tribute to Zdenka, Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive, Holocaust Educational Trust described her as a “tour de force” who dedicated herself to educating future generations about the Nazi horrors.
Pollock said: “Zdenka Fantlova was a tour de force. A survivor of Terezin, Auschwitz-Birkenau, a labour unit in Kurzbach, Gross-Rosen, Mauthausen and Bergen-Belsen, she was determined to share the horrors that she and her family experienced during the Holocaust. It was a remarkable and unique testimony that captivated all who had the privilege to hear it.
“Glamorous and elegant, Zdenka was dedicated to educating the next generation, even appearing on the Antiques Roadshow alongside one of her liberators from Bergen-Belsen. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time.”
Zdenka Fantlova was born in Czechoslovakia in 1922, and in January 1942, she was deported with her family from their home to the Terezin Ghetto where she was reunited with her boyfriend, Arno.
In June 1942, the day before Arno was to be deported, he made a ring out of tin that he gave to Zdenka to mark their engagement. On the inside of the ring, he had engraved “Arno 13.6.1942”.
On 17 October 1944, Zdenka’s sister Lydia and their stepmother were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and on arrival, Zdenka hid her ring under her tongue and managed to escape detection and keep it with her in the camp.
A short while later, Zdenka and Lydia were sent to Upper Silesia where Zdenka was forced to dig trenches. She was then sent on a Death March to Gross-Rosen in Germany, and then to Mauthausen in Austria, and then finally Bergen-Belsen where she was liberated on 15 April 1945 by the British Army.
Lydia tragically died shortly after arriving at Bergen-Belsen at the age of just 17 due to a typhus epidemic sweeping the camp.
After liberation, Zdenka learned that most of her family had been murdered, along with her fiancé Arno.
In 2011, she published a memoir entitled “The Tin Ring”, which told the story of her survival of the Nazi Holocaust, and forever memorialised the gift given to her by Arno, her first love.
She spent many years visiting schools and other organisations, educating students about her experience in the Holocaust. In 2014, she snubbed an invitation to meet the then-prime minister David Cameron as she was already scheduled to speak at a Holocaust memorial event.
She said at the time: “I received an invitation from the Prime Minister on the same day as The Customs House event but not only had I made a commitment but I felt it would be more important to pass on some wisdom.”
Zdenka Fantlova 1922-2022
