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My life was saved three times during the war. The first time was when the Guardists and Germans caught us, that they didn't drag me off and shoot me. The second time was when I survived that air raid, where the Anglo-Americans were shooting at us thinking it was a German transport. The third time was a few days before the liberation of the Mauthausen camp, before 5th May 1945, when I came down with typhoid fever, which was certain death. And because it was a few days before the liberation, the Americans then sent me to a hospital, where they cured me. So three times my life was saved in this miraculous fashion.
At the hospital, they treated me very well and nicely. The doctors and nurses were German, but under American supervision. I knew German, so I was able to speak to them. They were very nice. And those people, the villagers, they knew about the concentration camps, but then didn't have the faintest idea what sort of atrocities were going on there. Mass murders and gassings, they didn't know about that. All they knew was that there were prisoners there, and that they were starving. That's all. I know that, because I spoke with the residents of the surrounding towns and villages, and they swore to me that they didn't know about murders in the gas chambers and similar things.
I arrived in Bratislava from the hospital in August 1945. I of course came home, and didn't find anyone. Be it my father, my mother, my brother, my uncles, all had been murdered. No one was there. I arrived in Bratislava as a complete stranger. My parents had left the apartment, and that was that. After us, someone Aryanized it. I was young, and didn't make any claims on it. What was important to me was that I'd survived. After the war, I of course was inclined towards Jews. I didn't have any other friends except for Jews. It was almost only always we Jews, who'd been together with in Novaky, or in the uprising, that would get together. We met in cafés and so on. Nothing but Jews.
I began living in a place I rented from some non-Jews. I rented for five years, from 1945 until 1950. I began taking high school correspondence courses, because I was working as a helper, a laborer. After graduating from high school, I got a job and worked in a communal company and in various organizations, and then worked my way up. I began taking economics university via correspondence. I graduated and became a commercial engineer. I didn't experience any anti-Semitic comments at work, nothing like that took place. After the Slansky trials [14] I had certain doubts about the regime, but otherwise I myself didn't have any problems, as I wasn't in a position of responsibility. I worked as a minor official, so I didn't feel anything like some sort of pressure. It didn't affect me in any way.
At the hospital, they treated me very well and nicely. The doctors and nurses were German, but under American supervision. I knew German, so I was able to speak to them. They were very nice. And those people, the villagers, they knew about the concentration camps, but then didn't have the faintest idea what sort of atrocities were going on there. Mass murders and gassings, they didn't know about that. All they knew was that there were prisoners there, and that they were starving. That's all. I know that, because I spoke with the residents of the surrounding towns and villages, and they swore to me that they didn't know about murders in the gas chambers and similar things.
I arrived in Bratislava from the hospital in August 1945. I of course came home, and didn't find anyone. Be it my father, my mother, my brother, my uncles, all had been murdered. No one was there. I arrived in Bratislava as a complete stranger. My parents had left the apartment, and that was that. After us, someone Aryanized it. I was young, and didn't make any claims on it. What was important to me was that I'd survived. After the war, I of course was inclined towards Jews. I didn't have any other friends except for Jews. It was almost only always we Jews, who'd been together with in Novaky, or in the uprising, that would get together. We met in cafés and so on. Nothing but Jews.
I began living in a place I rented from some non-Jews. I rented for five years, from 1945 until 1950. I began taking high school correspondence courses, because I was working as a helper, a laborer. After graduating from high school, I got a job and worked in a communal company and in various organizations, and then worked my way up. I began taking economics university via correspondence. I graduated and became a commercial engineer. I didn't experience any anti-Semitic comments at work, nothing like that took place. After the Slansky trials [14] I had certain doubts about the regime, but otherwise I myself didn't have any problems, as I wasn't in a position of responsibility. I worked as a minor official, so I didn't feel anything like some sort of pressure. It didn't affect me in any way.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Oto Wagner