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Instead, she registered me into a fourth council school, a Slovak one this time. I finished this school as well, and had good grades. Only one grade wasn’t good, math. At that time we had an excellent principal. He was a Czech, and I came to see him: “Sir, I can’t have a grade like that. I’ve got to have all good grades.” “Why?” he asked me. “Because I want to apply to the teacher’s institute. And they won’t even accept me for entrance exams if I don’t have a better grade.” So he said: “All right, you study and I’ll let you know. You’ll have a make-up exam.” Ultimately I think I even got an A in math, though I wasn’t all that good in it.
So I got to the entrance exam for the teacher’s institute, where they accepted me. Among four hundred students there were about five, six of us Jews. Two boys and three or four girls. One Jewish girl from Bardejov was an amazing mathematician. I remember that even the professor admired her. That’s where I ended up graduating from. They gave me a C in Slovak, despite the fact that I was good in it. This was because the Slovak language professor was a nationalist. He was named Janosik. A big purist when it came to the Slovak language, and to this day I’m a purist after him. I’ve got to say, that my ears hurt when I hear something that doesn’t meet “Janosik’s standard”. And this Janosik gave me a C in Slovak. He said that a Jew couldn’t know Slovak. It was in the year 1937.
After my studies at the teacher’s institute I became a teacher. I began looking for work. I found out that the Kosice Jewish community had a Jewish primary school. So I submitted at application for this school. My competition was someone by the name of Kraus. Because he knew Hebrew better than me, I didn’t succeed in the competition. Finally I passed exams for Levoca, where there was a one-room school [meaning children from multiple grades studied in one classroom, and the teacher had to devote himself to each grade separately during class – Editor’s note]. I taught there during the 1937/38 school year.
So I got to the entrance exam for the teacher’s institute, where they accepted me. Among four hundred students there were about five, six of us Jews. Two boys and three or four girls. One Jewish girl from Bardejov was an amazing mathematician. I remember that even the professor admired her. That’s where I ended up graduating from. They gave me a C in Slovak, despite the fact that I was good in it. This was because the Slovak language professor was a nationalist. He was named Janosik. A big purist when it came to the Slovak language, and to this day I’m a purist after him. I’ve got to say, that my ears hurt when I hear something that doesn’t meet “Janosik’s standard”. And this Janosik gave me a C in Slovak. He said that a Jew couldn’t know Slovak. It was in the year 1937.
After my studies at the teacher’s institute I became a teacher. I began looking for work. I found out that the Kosice Jewish community had a Jewish primary school. So I submitted at application for this school. My competition was someone by the name of Kraus. Because he knew Hebrew better than me, I didn’t succeed in the competition. Finally I passed exams for Levoca, where there was a one-room school [meaning children from multiple grades studied in one classroom, and the teacher had to devote himself to each grade separately during class – Editor’s note]. I taught there during the 1937/38 school year.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Jozef W.