Selected text
Things turned bad for us beginning in 1938. My father was fired from his
job after the Hungarians arrived [4]. All the relatives in his family
started helping each other in every way they could. I don't know the
circumstances, but I never heard the issue of emigration being discussed.
Still, I went to school and I graduated from high school in 1941.
When the Germans came here in 1943 my mother and I escaped to Budapest. My
father arranged all this for us in advance, and he was to come later, but
first he had to help his own family out. He didn't make it. He was deported
from Kosice in 1944. My mother and I survived in the Budapest ghetto. While
there, I was grabbed and taken to the train station, on a transport bound
for Germany. My mother came to the station and she just pulled me off. This
happened in 1944. When the bombardment started my mother and I hid in a
cellar. She really didn't look like a Jew, and I think that's partly what
saved us.
I remember the Russian soldiers who came into Budapest then. [Editor's
note: the interviewee is referring to the liberation/occupation of Hungary
by Soviet troops at the end of WWII.] It was clear some of them didn't have
any idea of where they were.
My mother and I returned to Kosice. We were the city's urban Jews-well
educated and well off. We suffered horribly over the years. First came the
Hungarians, who took our apartment. Then came the Germans and deported
everyone still here. And then came the Communists [see Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia] [5], who took the houses all over again.
job after the Hungarians arrived [4]. All the relatives in his family
started helping each other in every way they could. I don't know the
circumstances, but I never heard the issue of emigration being discussed.
Still, I went to school and I graduated from high school in 1941.
When the Germans came here in 1943 my mother and I escaped to Budapest. My
father arranged all this for us in advance, and he was to come later, but
first he had to help his own family out. He didn't make it. He was deported
from Kosice in 1944. My mother and I survived in the Budapest ghetto. While
there, I was grabbed and taken to the train station, on a transport bound
for Germany. My mother came to the station and she just pulled me off. This
happened in 1944. When the bombardment started my mother and I hid in a
cellar. She really didn't look like a Jew, and I think that's partly what
saved us.
I remember the Russian soldiers who came into Budapest then. [Editor's
note: the interviewee is referring to the liberation/occupation of Hungary
by Soviet troops at the end of WWII.] It was clear some of them didn't have
any idea of where they were.
My mother and I returned to Kosice. We were the city's urban Jews-well
educated and well off. We suffered horribly over the years. First came the
Hungarians, who took our apartment. Then came the Germans and deported
everyone still here. And then came the Communists [see Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia] [5], who took the houses all over again.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Susana Balaszova