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Originally I had inclined to Communism. I was influenced greatly by Professor Lon at the teachers’ institute in Presov. The Professor was from Moravia, and was a Communist. He never concealed his convictions. During strikes he liked to discuss this theme with us. Gradually I began getting to Communist literature in Czech, and later also in German. When I became a social democrat, because also the Minister of Education at the time was a social democrat. But later I went to teach at the Jewish school in Levoca, where a member of the Zionist organization Hashomer Hatzair [7] was working, so I became a ‘shomer’.
In Hashomer we used to go to summer camps. I remember that we were not far from Spisske Vlachy [Kosice region] and those were scouting experiences. We were Jewish leftists, Zionists. We definitely rejected Jabotinsky’s [8] nationalism.
I still have to return to my sister. She liked our parents, but she was very fixated on me as well. I’ve got this impression that didn’t study further than elementary school. When we had a farm, she worked on it like every other farmer’s daughter. Her friends were the local girls. Shortly after my wedding, in March of 1942, the Guardists [9] took her away. When they came for her, our father wasn’t home. When he found out what had happened, he wanted to commit suicide. Mother stopped him. Before it happened, they had been warned by a Slovak policeman by the name of Cincala. He warned my parents that Mana [Maria’s nickname] should hide, because the Guardists were coming. I don’t know if our parents didn’t believe it, or if they were afraid. In the end Viktor didn’t commit suicide, but then their turn came. They thought that they were being sent to work. So they gave away the furniture, which was of better quality, to their friend Anderko, and my mother gave him my father’s watch, which he had inherited from his grandfather, who had in turn inherited it from his grandfather. That courageous person, Juraj Anderko, has a certain measure of credit for my survival. But I’ll get back to that later. They took my sister, who was 18 years old at the time, away to Poprad.
In Hashomer we used to go to summer camps. I remember that we were not far from Spisske Vlachy [Kosice region] and those were scouting experiences. We were Jewish leftists, Zionists. We definitely rejected Jabotinsky’s [8] nationalism.
I still have to return to my sister. She liked our parents, but she was very fixated on me as well. I’ve got this impression that didn’t study further than elementary school. When we had a farm, she worked on it like every other farmer’s daughter. Her friends were the local girls. Shortly after my wedding, in March of 1942, the Guardists [9] took her away. When they came for her, our father wasn’t home. When he found out what had happened, he wanted to commit suicide. Mother stopped him. Before it happened, they had been warned by a Slovak policeman by the name of Cincala. He warned my parents that Mana [Maria’s nickname] should hide, because the Guardists were coming. I don’t know if our parents didn’t believe it, or if they were afraid. In the end Viktor didn’t commit suicide, but then their turn came. They thought that they were being sent to work. So they gave away the furniture, which was of better quality, to their friend Anderko, and my mother gave him my father’s watch, which he had inherited from his grandfather, who had in turn inherited it from his grandfather. That courageous person, Juraj Anderko, has a certain measure of credit for my survival. But I’ll get back to that later. They took my sister, who was 18 years old at the time, away to Poprad.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Jozef W.
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