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The first time I noticed anti-Semitism was in the form of minor slights from my elementary school classmates in Kokava. The conditions for this were present in many families. After 1945, it was very risky to publicly express hatred for Jews in our area. Despite this, it took place in various ways. They’d call me a Yid, for example. There was an ice cream vendor in Kokava, from the Balkans, from Montenegro, and whenever I went to buy ice cream, he’d call me ‘chifut’ [from the Turkish word Cühut, or Jew]. I never knew with it meant. Later I found out that it’s a Muslim swear-word for Jew. I was aware of these things, but they didn’t worry me much. Of course, a person realizes these things after the fact.
The first time I felt anti-Semitism in a more serious fashion wasn’t until after 1968 [9], when they threw me out of school because I’d expressed my opinion regarding the arrival of the Russians [10] and of Husak [11]. I was an employee by then, a teacher at the Faculty of Education in Nitra, and there the purges that took place in the schools had a clear anti-Semitic side to them as well.
The first time I felt anti-Semitism in a more serious fashion wasn’t until after 1968 [9], when they threw me out of school because I’d expressed my opinion regarding the arrival of the Russians [10] and of Husak [11]. I was an employee by then, a teacher at the Faculty of Education in Nitra, and there the purges that took place in the schools had a clear anti-Semitic side to them as well.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Tibor Engel