Anna, born on 26 November 1930 as the youngest child of Leo and Elisabeth Flach, née Kober, lived in Brno, when the Germans oocupied their homelands. There Anna received her first piano lessons and attended the renowned ballet school of Ivo Váňa-Psota with her sister Alice. A year later she took her first singing lessons - with one of the greatest masters in his field, Professor Sigmund Auspitzer, once the teacher of Maria Jeritza, the world-famous opera star from Brno. Her secure life ended on 15 March 1939. Her father's business was placed under the supervision of two 'Aryan trustees'. From that time on, hostilities increased and one unpleasant experience followed another. "Once two Germans in uniform walked past me and I saw one pointing at me and heard him say to the other: "Look at her. Such a beautiful girl. What a pity that she is a Jew. -That was terrible for me. What is bad about being a Jew?" she often would ask.
"Even now I have the same strong, bitter feeling inside me when I think back on it. Or when I hear anti-Semitic statements. It hits me deeply. Stronger than hunger and other restrictions and prohibitions was this hatred we faced, the unjustified humiliation we were subjected to. That remains a whole life."
