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My father loved books. In the room where I slept there was a huge cabinet full of books. Besides the cabinet there were also wooden shelves, which were full of books all the way up to the wood-paneled ceiling. These were books that my father had inherited from his grandfather, the Lucenec rabbi.
That means that they were very, very old. In 1942 I was in Budapest, and by then my parents were dirt poor. In Budapest I got to know one big businessman, Schlessinger. In those days Josef Schlessinger was a famous book merchant. Before the Anschluss, he had a big bookstore in Vienna and one in Budapest. Josef Schlessinger & Sohn.
He was a great expert on books, so I wanted my father to sell some of them. He was interested, so in 1942 he traveled to Samorin and picked out various books. For one book, my father would have gotten 8,000 pengö. Back then, one modest lunch in a "buffet" in Budapest cost about 40 fillér [100 fillér = 1 pengó].
You can imagine how much money that was, because already at that time there was great poverty. There wasn't anything to live on. But my father wouldn't sell that book for anything. Not for anything, because it was too valuable for him.
He didn't want to sell any of the books, even when he needed money badly. The books were worth millions, because they were also valuable from a historical standpoint. After the war, when I returned, I went to the ghetto in Zlate Klasy, where my parents had been staying before they deported them to Dunajska Streda.
The residents that had pilfered the books after the Jews were deported from the ghetto were using them as fuel for their stoves! Some were also in the bathroom. They were using them because they didn't have toilet paper. That was the fate of my father's library.
That means that they were very, very old. In 1942 I was in Budapest, and by then my parents were dirt poor. In Budapest I got to know one big businessman, Schlessinger. In those days Josef Schlessinger was a famous book merchant. Before the Anschluss, he had a big bookstore in Vienna and one in Budapest. Josef Schlessinger & Sohn.
He was a great expert on books, so I wanted my father to sell some of them. He was interested, so in 1942 he traveled to Samorin and picked out various books. For one book, my father would have gotten 8,000 pengö. Back then, one modest lunch in a "buffet" in Budapest cost about 40 fillér [100 fillér = 1 pengó].
You can imagine how much money that was, because already at that time there was great poverty. There wasn't anything to live on. But my father wouldn't sell that book for anything. Not for anything, because it was too valuable for him.
He didn't want to sell any of the books, even when he needed money badly. The books were worth millions, because they were also valuable from a historical standpoint. After the war, when I returned, I went to the ghetto in Zlate Klasy, where my parents had been staying before they deported them to Dunajska Streda.
The residents that had pilfered the books after the Jews were deported from the ghetto were using them as fuel for their stoves! Some were also in the bathroom. They were using them because they didn't have toilet paper. That was the fate of my father's library.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Singer Alexander