Katharina (Kathy Waller) Polach, born 25.11.1873

Kathy was the eldest of several children. Her father tried
to make his fortune in Bruenn, but was lured to America, where Baron Hirsch was
building a railway. For a time he wrote letters, but then he disappeared and
was never heard of again. Kathy's mother was obliged to go to work caring for newborn
babies, and Kathy was in charge of her younger siblings. Thus she hardly had
any schooling, but with her alert mind and intelligence she acquired quite a wide
knowledge.

On a visit to Vienna, she met Johann Polach and soon they
were married. They lived in Bruenn, the capital of Moravia. They had three
sons, Hans, Friedrich and Ernst-Benjamin.

Kathy spent her life caring, protecting and loving others,
for herself she wanted nothing. She was Aunt Kathy for the assorted cousins and
their children, both hers and her husband's, and nobody ever left her house without
something, be it a piece of cake or some money concealed in the pocket of a
coat.

She was extremely frugal, nothing was wasted in the
household, she recycled old clothes, she sewed and knitted all the time.

In 1942, Kathy and Johann were deported to Ghetto
Theresienstadt. Johann died soon after their arrival, but Kathy survived under
the terrible conditions until the end of the war. One of her nephews took her
in since her flat with all their possessions had been confiscated by the Nazis.

She lived for five more years, and even held her
great-grandson on her knees. She died 25.2. 1950, alone, as her only grandaughter immigrated to Israel, and is burried in the Jewish cemetery.