Summer 1942 in Veverská Bítýška: gardening and canoeing
Creator(s)
- Antonie Eckstein-Bloch (Camera Operator)
- Antonín Eckstein (Subject)
- Michaela Kilianová (Subject)
- Jaroslav Kilian
Biographical History
Antonie (Toni) Eckstein-Bloch was adopted by Františka Kapoun (1873–1931), a Catholic housekeeper for the Bloch family. Toni’s first husband Emerich Schmeer (married in 1917) was killed in WW1 when he had to return to the battlefields. After the death of her step-father, Leopold Bloch, in March 1933, Toni became the successor of the Bloch properties in Brno and Veverská Bítýška. She married Leopold's close friend, Dr. Michael Eckstein, a Jew who was nearly 20 years her senior in March 1934. Toni and Michael lived primarily in two homes: Hlínky 35 (a prestigious boulevard with tram connections to the center of Brno in a bourgeois neighborhood) and the summer residence at Veverská Bítýška [Eichhorn-Bitischka] 238. Both properties are prominently pictured in Toni's films. Toni and Michael had two children, Michaela (born April 27, 1935) and Antonín (born October 19, 1936). Michael chose to move away from his Catholic wife, Toni, and the children on August 14, 1940 in order to protect the family. They officially divorced on September 19, 1940. In the last years of war Toni and the children stayed in Veverska Bityska, where they survived.
Scope and Content
Summer 1942 in Veverská Bítýška, Michaela and Antonín outdoors in a vegetable garden, corn stalks, gardening. Shows an elderly couple (friends of father Michael Eckstein from Brno, probably a lawyer with his wife) and the family of the Czech housekeeper, Milan Jubánek (born in 1935) and his younger brother Laďa Jubánek (born 1942, the baby at 01:07:18). Michaela and Antonín walk on a log with a little dog. Ducks. Michaela, Antonin, the elderly man, and the nannies walk along a dirt road. Cows. The group hikes, climbs over rocks, in the forest. The nanny tosses a handbag in the air and feeds a goat. The group canoes on a small lake. Pan of the country property, the children play. 01:07:15 Mrs. Klímová (a housekeeper for the Bloch family since 1917), the grandmother, holds baby Laďa Jubánek. Michaela and Antonín are tossed up and down in a canoe; Milan splashes nearby, laughing. The older boy takes a turn. Higher angle shots of the makeshift pool of water with the kids playing in the canoe. Ends 01:09:41
Note(s)
This reel was most likely filmed in the Summer 1942, dated by the age of the baby shown at 01:07:18, after the death of Michael Eckstein. The original label on the canister, therefore, is inaccurate: "IV. Leden.1938"
Refer to the files for digital copies of the tragic correspondence and diary entries written by Michael Eckstein after he separated from his wife and children in August 1940 and moved into the apartment at Zeile 12,
Subjects
- CZECHOSLOVAKIA
- NANNIES
- SUMMER
- CHILDREN
- FAMILIES
- FARMERS/FARMING
- SPORTS/GAMES
- DOGS
- LAKES
- BOATS
Places
- Veverská Bítýška, Czechoslovakia
Genre
- Film
- Amateur.