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In 1942 they sent the first transport of young girls from Zilina. The Guardists [Hlinka-Guards] [8] appeared at our place too, and wanted to take me with them. At the Hlinka Guard headquarters I was mistakenly registered as having been born in 1926 instead of 1936, so according to them I was 16 years old. My parents had to prove at the Hlinka Guard headquarters via various documents that they only had the one six-year-old child. In hiding with us was this one girl, Ilonka Steinova. Ilonka was from Ruzomberok or Liptovsky Mikulas, I don’t exactly know any more. She was staying with us, to take care of me, as if she was my nanny. Ilonka suffered from epilepsy. On that occasion, when they came for me, they saw her and counted her in, that is, took her to the camp instead of me. During the transport, or right after her arrival at the camp, she must have had an epileptic seizure, because they sent her to the other side right away. She went straight to the gas chambers.
I don’t remember any exceptional tomfoolery from my childhood. I was a very good child. Most of my memories are from the post-war period, because I was nine when the war ended. I only remember fragments from before the war. At my grandparents’, the Donaths’ place I had a little dog. At home I played with a midget rooster. At that time there was a fowl pest in Zilina, and he got it too. He died. We children buried him in a shoebox.
I spent part of my childhood in Zilina. In 1942 my parents had themselves baptized in order to protect us. We knew this one priest in Kysucke Nove Mesto, who baptized us. At that time I was already of school age, so my parents registered me at a school run by nuns, a so-called ‘sirotar.’ There were many other Jewish children hiding out with the nuns, and they were very nice to me. Many Jewish girls attended school there. I can’t tell you what the ratio of Jews to non-Jews was. In my class there were three other Jewish girls. One was named Martuska Witenbergerova, who never returned from the camps. Because I was attending a Catholic school, I also had to go to First Communion, because according to documentation I had been baptized. The biggest paradox of my school attendance during the Holocaust was that I, a Jewess, had to be a member of the Hlinka Youth. [Editor’s note: Slovak youth organization operating in Slovakia during World War II, similar to the ‘Hitlerjugend.’] All children were, so I also had to be. My entire membership consisted of the fact that they registered me. I didn’t have a uniform. During meetings we would read the magazine Sunshine. I remember an article about President Tiso [9]. I parroted these things automatically as a child, at that age one didn’t think about it.
I don’t remember any exceptional tomfoolery from my childhood. I was a very good child. Most of my memories are from the post-war period, because I was nine when the war ended. I only remember fragments from before the war. At my grandparents’, the Donaths’ place I had a little dog. At home I played with a midget rooster. At that time there was a fowl pest in Zilina, and he got it too. He died. We children buried him in a shoebox.
I spent part of my childhood in Zilina. In 1942 my parents had themselves baptized in order to protect us. We knew this one priest in Kysucke Nove Mesto, who baptized us. At that time I was already of school age, so my parents registered me at a school run by nuns, a so-called ‘sirotar.’ There were many other Jewish children hiding out with the nuns, and they were very nice to me. Many Jewish girls attended school there. I can’t tell you what the ratio of Jews to non-Jews was. In my class there were three other Jewish girls. One was named Martuska Witenbergerova, who never returned from the camps. Because I was attending a Catholic school, I also had to go to First Communion, because according to documentation I had been baptized. The biggest paradox of my school attendance during the Holocaust was that I, a Jewess, had to be a member of the Hlinka Youth. [Editor’s note: Slovak youth organization operating in Slovakia during World War II, similar to the ‘Hitlerjugend.’] All children were, so I also had to be. My entire membership consisted of the fact that they registered me. I didn’t have a uniform. During meetings we would read the magazine Sunshine. I remember an article about President Tiso [9]. I parroted these things automatically as a child, at that age one didn’t think about it.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Judita Schvalbova