Valerie Borsky was a female Czech Jew who survived Theresienstadt.  She entered in 1942 at the age of 29.  Her younger sister stayed in Theresienstadt for eight months before she was sent "East" to be killed.  Her fifty year old mother and fifty-five year old father joined Theresienstadt but both died of starvation in one year.

          Valie, short for Valerie, worked in the Records Department.  Working there meant you typed the lists of transports to Poland or Auschwitz- Birkenau to be gassed.  She worked twelve to Fourteen hours a day.  Valie and other co-workers typed 10,000 Jews from all over Europe on seventy to eighty lists.  Valie's name came up to be transported four different times.  Someone had to fill in her spot every time to complete the list.   Valie had to type names of friends, family, and her own fiancée onto the death lists.

          Fleas and lice were huge problems along with the contagious diseases and Typhus.  Hunger was a major problem, too.  People had to steal food to survive.  Many grew weeds and grass and boiled them to eat.  The S.S. outlawed it because the horses needed to eat.  Valie said " If boiled it tastes like spinach."  People still stole weeds.  Soon potatoes were the most valuable food, while staple food was watery soup and stale bread.

          Valie lived in a military barrack with other co-working women.  She slept on the floor with scattered straw and a tattered blanket to keep warm.

          Valie kept stealing food or trading for food.  She was eventually caught with three potatoes.  The punishment was to be beaten by Czech ghetto police armed with whips and clubs.  While Valie was being beaten a S.S. officer yelled, "Beat her to death, to teach the rest a lesson!"  

          The club hurt her internally.  The worst injuries were the broken bones in her back, arms, and shoulder.  She was hospitalized for weeks and the Jewish doctors didn't have the proper medication nor equipment to treat her.  So as a result she became a "hunchback," with a distorted spine and one leg longer than the other.  She became four inches shorter and crippled for life.  She never stood upright again in all her life.  Most were treated like that by the Nazis.

          When Russia gained control of Theresienstadt, a Typhus epidemic broke out.  Valie survived while many died because of the epidemic.

          After Theresienstadt was liberated Valie found work.  She saved money to leave Europe.  "I didn't want any part of Europe.  I hated my own people, and other Europeans as well."  She said.

          She later bought a ticket to Australia.  She met a non-Jewish Czech named Vladislav Borsky.  She and he fell in love and were married on the voyage.  He was a rich man and when they landed on Australia he bought a house and worked in an aluminum factory.  Later he opened his own business and prospered.

          Later they moved to Oakland, California where Vlaislav worked as an engineer till retirement.  They had a boy who went to medical school and is a Ophthalmologist.

          She suffered a heart attack in August in 1995.  She died two days after.