Cilka's Journey

Content Warning: This study guide contains depictions of genocide, rape, sexual assault, suicide, and drug addiction.

Cilka’s Journey is based on the life and experiences of Cecilia Klein, born on March 17, 1926, in Sabinov, Slovakia. Cilka Klein was the youngest of two daughters born to Miklaus and Fany Klein, though she had an older half sister through her father’s first wife, Cecilia. At some point before 1931, the Klein family moved to Bardejov. Then, in 1942, the Nazis gathered the Slovakian Jews and sent them to Auschwitz. Miklaus and his daughters entered Auschwitz on April 23, 1942, and Cilka became prisoner 5907. No record of Cilka’s mother entering Auschwitz exists, but friends of Cilka report that she saw her mother on a death cart in Birkenau. Cilka was the only member of her family to survive Auschwitz.

When the Soviets liberated Auschwitz, they sent Cilka to Montelupich Prison in Kraków, Poland. From there, they sent Cilka to Vorkuta Gulag. After 10 years, she was released from Vorkuta and was back in Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia and the Czech Republic) by 1959. At this point, she began a life with a man she met in Vorkuta. They never had children, but witnesses say they loved each other dearly.