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. Michael Ekstein was born in Galicia in 1873 and moved to Brno (Brünn) as a child. He was a lawyer. He and his wife, Antonie (Toni) Eckstein-Bloch (married in 1934) lived in Brno at Hlínky 35. In an effort to save his Catholic wife and children, Michaela (b. 1935) and Antonín (b. 1936), After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Michael divorced Toni in September 1940 and relocated to their home in Brno at Zeile 12. He maintained correspondence with his wife and children. Michael was deported to Terezin in April 1942 on transport Ai, č. 226 (08. 04. 1942, Brno -> Terezín https://www.holocaust.cz/databaze-obeti/obet/81503-michal-eckstein/) and died there on August 12, 1942. Toni and the children survived in Veverská Bítýška. Jakob Eckstein (brother of Michael Eckstein) was deported from Brno in March 1942 onTransport Ad, č. 332 (23. 03. 1942, Brno -> Terezín) and died at Terezin on July 4, 1942. https://www.holocaust.cz/databaze-obeti/obet/81461-jakub-eckstein/
This is the last film in the collection showing father Michael Eckstein.
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,
August 1939. Nannies swing Michaela and Antonin in a sheet in the garden of the family home in Brno, filmed probably from the balcony of the home. Pan of the grand outdoor space. 01:01:04 A woman practices somersaults beside the pools for the children; Antonin and a nanny playfully slap her and she laughs. The children play outdoors. 01:01:34 Father Michael joins them. 01:02:06 Children snack outdoors at the table with other unknown children and their female caretakers. They chase each other in the grass beside the family home and occasionally pose for a portrait. Michael follows the kids in the garden, smoking a cigar, and smiling for the camera at 01:02:58. The kids run around, do somersaults, and take a walk along a wooded path with the extended Eckstein family and the nannies. 01:04:00 Uncle Jakob with Michaela and Antonin (and their nannies), resting on a bench. End 01:04:14
Eckstein family in Summer 1939