Women in War | All stories

Zuzana Ruzickova is one of Europe's most renowned harpsichord players, and has made dozens of recording during a career spanning over a half a century. But 60 years ago, after three hellish years in Nazi concentration camps, she feared she might never play again. Here she recalls coming home from the War to her hometown of Pilsen in west Bohemia, when she was 18.

The retired teacher Ludmila Seidlova was a teenager during the Second World War. In her choice of profession she was inspired by her father who was headmaster at the so-called "Teachers' Institute" in Panska Street, just off Prague's famous Na Prikope Street. Ludmila Seidlova lived with her family right in the school, originally built by the Piarist Order in the 18th century.

If the film Casablanca had not been fiction, perhaps Sam would have played "As Time Goes By" for the Prague-born writer Lenka Reinerova. In 1941 she was one of many thousands of refugees who found themselves trapped in the Moroccan port as they tried to escape occupied Europe for the New World. Lenka Reinerova was born 88 years ago into a German-speaking Prague Jewish family.