Tag #135946 - Interview #99539 (Jozef W.)

I also have to mention an important thing, which is why my mother got along so well with the locals. She quickly became familiar with Saris [Saris dialect: one of the dialects used in the territory of Eastern Slovakia – Editor’s note], and spoke it fluently. At home we spoke Yiddish, with the neighbors in Saris, but she also learned German. She even learned grammatically correct Slovak. She was also very interested in culture. There was an amateur theater group in the village, boys and girls would put on plays. My mother attended the performances and wrote reviews or critiques. She was also self-taught in health sciences. She was quite well versed in pills and medicines. When someone fell ill, she went to help them. She was terribly kindhearted. My mother was an exceptionally good person, and that’s why they liked her very much.

As far as political or other opinions are concerned, my stepfather Viktor, being relatively uneducated, didn’t show any interest in such things. My mother, however, very much admired Masaryk [5]. When Masaryk died in 1937, she wept.