In her diary entry for 19 September 1941, Eva Roubíčková records the reactions to her wearing the yellow star1Published in Roubíčková, Langsam, p. 47. This document has been translated from German.
Diary of Eva Roubíčková, entry for 19 September 1941
Friday, 19 September 1941
Went to work at half-past seven wearing the star.2A regulation of 1 Sept. 1941 made it compulsory for Jews in the Protectorate to wear visible identification in the form of a yellow star. See Doc. 212.
People either ignored it or smiled, but in any event they behaved better than I would have expected.
In the workshop they were all surprised that I am a Jew, and they were very decent about it. After work I went to see Mama;3The writer is referring to the mother of her then fiancé, Richard Roubíček, namely Marie Roubíčková, née Gibian (1889–1943), housewife; married to a lawyer; deported from Prague to Theresienstadt in Sept. 1942 and then to Auschwitz in Dec. 1943. Lotte4Lotte, also known as Lota Singerová, née Roubíčková (1913–1943), student and housewife; sister of Richard Roubíček; lived in Vizovice, near Zlin; was married to a businessman and factory owner, and had two children. She was deported from Prague to Theresienstadt on 8 Sept. 1942 and on 15 Dec. 1943 to Auschwitz, where she perished. was there too. Then met up with Benny5Benny Grünberger (1922–1942); on 22 Oct. 1942 deported from Theresienstadt to Treblinka, where he was murdered. and went with him to Eva’s.6Eva Glauber.
Ernst and Danny7Benny Grünberger’s brother Danny was caught by the Gestapo while attempting to flee to Hungary in 1943 and subsequently executed along with his parents. See Roubíčková, Langsam, pp. 139–142, entry for 22 July 1943. were there as well.
Everyone is talking about how decently people have behaved.
Word has come from England that the Czechs should be especially nice to their Jewish compatriots, and that they should do whatever they can to make this humiliation easier to bear.8See Doc. 317. Many people greet Jews in the street, speak to them, and make the conscious decision to walk side by side with them for a while, which is, of course, an act of provocation against the Germans.