Zdenka Fantlova: Holocaust survivor, author and educator dies at the age of 100
Added: (Fri Nov 18 2022)
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PRESS RELEASE
Zdenka Fantlovŕ 1922–2022
Holocaust survivor, author and educator Zdenka Fantlovŕ died peacefully at the age of 100 on the 14 November.
Zdenka was a well-known speaker on the Holocaust, visiting schools and speaking at book festivals sharing her unique testimony. Zdenka was a great communicator especially through her live performances where she had an incredible knack of connecting with young people.
To share her experiences of the Holocaust she wrote the book The Tin Ring, a very moving memoir of love, loss and hope in which she describes how her peaceful life was changed forever when she was sent to Terezin concentration camp. Here, she was given a humble engraved tin ring by her first love Arno. She survived six concentration camps including Auschwitz, Gross Rosen, Mauthausen and Belsen – the worst of all – enduring horrors the like of which most of us can't begin to comprehend, yet never lost the will to live. When Arno gave her the ring he said, ‘That's for our engagement. And, to keep you safe. If we are both alive when the war ends I will find you.’ The ring was the symbol of his love – a tin ring – that gave her the hope to endure unimaginable suffering and survive in the belief that they would one day be re-united. Zdenka protected this little tin ring with her life and with astonishing determination. She lost her entire family in the Holocaust but her own determination to survive and live on was awe-inspiring.
Zdenka never showed self-pity. With her compassion for other people, her sense of humour and the ability to take remarkable risks, was just part of part Zdenka's indomitable spirit.
She arrived in London over 50 years ago together with her husband, a German WWII refugee, who she met and married in Australia. She is survived by her US-based daughter, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild – and an army of friends who will not forget the vivacious person whose active life took her all over the world.
She also gave radio and TV interviews including a special edition of the Antiques Roadshow where Fiona Bruce talked to her about the tin ring of the book; there she was able to thank publicly the unknown soldier who saved her life when the British liberated Bergen Belsen. She was also one of the main commentators in a film by Simon Broughton on the music in Terezin.
In recognition of her contribution to Holocaust education she was presented with a Points of Light award in the UK. Her achievements have also been recognised by the town of her birth, Blatna and that of her hometown, Rokycany, both in the Czech Republic, with plaques honouring her contribution to Holocaust awareness.
In 2022 McNidder & Grace published a new edition of The Tin Ring to celebrate her 100th birthday.
For further enquiries please contact:
Andrew Smith
andy@mcnidderandgrace.co.uk