A small-scale exhibition devoted to Doris Grozdanovičová and especially to “her lambs” has been newly on display in the premises of the Terezín Memorial´s Education Center II in Fučíkova Street in Terezín since April 2023.
Doris Grozdanovičová, née Schimmerlingová, was imprisoned in the Terezín Ghetto from January 1942 to May 1945. For most of her stay in the Ghetto she worked as a shepherd girl tending a herd of sheep. No wonder that after the war she began collecting different objects referring to this particular chapter of her Terezín history. Many items were donated by friends, often as a way of thanks for her kind and captivating stories she had told during debates with students from all over the Czech Republic and abroad.
The exhibition displayed in three showcases forms just part of the collection donated to the Terezín Memorial after the death of Doris by her son Jan in 2019. Definitely worth mentioning among the exhibits is at least a collection of hand-made lambs donated by the children and their teacher from an elementary school at Jílové near Prague. The gift came with a personal message: “Dear Mrs. Doris, let me thank you once again for the meeting that impressed our children so much. I do hope you will like the lambs.“
For her part, Doris was known to have closely cooperated with the Terezín Memorial in the sphere of education about the Holocaust. She regularly attended seminars for young people and schoolteachers, always overflowing with incredible kindness and unflagging love for life. Our new display will act as a reminder of Doris and her life story also in the future.
For more information on the life and imprisonment of Doris in the Terezín Ghetto read her cameo printed in the Newsletter No. 2/2017. See https://newsletter.pamatnik-terezin.cz/doris-grozdanovicova-her-life-story/?lang=en
Jana Švarcová
