Under A Cruel Star: A Life In Prague, 1941-1968

It is now night, and the young Czech girl has left them, but not before having given them navigation advice. The girls are cold, hungry, and incredibly weak, but they are also full of determination and strength. Soon, a young Polish woman walking by offers them help. She invites them to her home, but is unsure of how to help them further, and also is afraid to do so. She tells them to visit a Czech woman at the “far end of the village” who should be able to further assist them (23).

The Polish woman, Mrs. Nemcova, welcomes them into her home and offers them huge slices of bread. “At that moment,” Heda writes, “everything faded, the whole world stood aside. There was nothing alive in the whole universe but the four of us and that huge, sweet-smelling, wonderful loaf of bread” (23). Mrs. Nemcova then offers advice on to how to cross the border. She tells them that tonight there was a party at the local pub and that “by ten o’clock all the policemen would be drunk” (23).

With help from Mrs. Nemcova, Heda, Hanka, and two other girls, Zuzka, and Mana, sneak into the darkness that night. They walk barefoot through the snow, so that they will not lose their shoes in the dark.