“I met my first husband, Otto Weiss, in an outdoor swimming pool in Prague. He was a salesman, a trader in hops, and something of a good looker. Otto was a Jew yet felt Czech above all. The fact that I was a “shikse,” not Jewish, wasn’t an issue.

We didn’t have any children, the times just didn’t feel secure enough. When the Germans came, they got worse. Otto lost his job, fortunately I kept mine at one of Prague’s best tailors – Mrs. Bata, Tomas Bata’s wife, was among my customers.

By the time I had to saw the stars on all of my husband’s coats and jackets, people were advising me to divorce him, to do the smart thing: “Divorce with a Jew is just a formality,” someone told me.

I loved my husband and did nothing. Otto had to go to Terezín for several weeks, then the war ended. After he died in the fifties, I married Desider Zinger, a Jewish doctor. Quite a coincidence, I realize..”