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My name is Otto Schvalb and I was born in Presov, in the year 1925. I was my parents’ only child. Despite being an only child, my mother didn’t spoil me at all. My mother believed in a good upbringing, which means – how would I say it – she didn’t tolerate all the foolishness that I got up to. I always had to be home exactly when she said. Before I reached the age of six, I had a nanny. I liked her, she was a kind girl. She came from around Gelnica. She belonged to the Mantaks, Spis Germans, so we talked mainly German with each other. [Editor’s note: More or less tolerated form of German, in the regional dialect called ‘mantak’, microculture in the quite isolated small town of Medzev (German Metzenseifen) with about 4,000 inhabitants in the valley of the Bodva River in Eastern Slovakia. It deals with the actively spoken Mantak language and with the use or even abuse of mantak elements of folklore (songs, dances, traditional costumes etc.). The original Mantak population, that had been living there since the Middle Ages and that managed to stay during the cruel times of the compulsory transfer under President Benes in 1946/1947, was strongly discriminated against.] At the age of six I began to attend a school where the subjects were taught in Slovak, and maybe also for this reason my parents decided that I don’t need a German nanny.
Before the war we observed all the high holidays at home, but for example during Sukkot we didn’t put up a tent any more. There were, however, families that did. I can’t say that as a child I had a favorite Jewish holiday. I didn’t even go to the synagogue very much, only when my grandfather on my father’s side took me along with him. Even before the war a little Christmas tree would appear in our household, of course without any sort of cross, only decorated with candy and chocolate. It was mainly for the girls that worked in our household. In the beginning my grandfather was against it, to decorate even a small Christmas tree in our house, but then he let himself be convinced that it wasn’t anything important. So we didn’t celebrate Christmas at all, only Chanukkah. We would pray and Chanukkah supper would be prepared. We got gifts. After World War II, in the beginning I observed mainly Yom Kippur. But I only fasted until dinnertime, no later than that.
Before the war we observed all the high holidays at home, but for example during Sukkot we didn’t put up a tent any more. There were, however, families that did. I can’t say that as a child I had a favorite Jewish holiday. I didn’t even go to the synagogue very much, only when my grandfather on my father’s side took me along with him. Even before the war a little Christmas tree would appear in our household, of course without any sort of cross, only decorated with candy and chocolate. It was mainly for the girls that worked in our household. In the beginning my grandfather was against it, to decorate even a small Christmas tree in our house, but then he let himself be convinced that it wasn’t anything important. So we didn’t celebrate Christmas at all, only Chanukkah. We would pray and Chanukkah supper would be prepared. We got gifts. After World War II, in the beginning I observed mainly Yom Kippur. But I only fasted until dinnertime, no later than that.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Otto Schvalb