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In the meantime we were again in danger. Their son wanted to join the partisans. There were a lot of partisans in the region around Piestany. Apparently there were provocateurs among the partisans, their son found out about it, but only later, because he brought them there, where we lived. So we once again ended up in Mrs. Burzikova’s lap. In time there was also some sort of a problem at Mrs. Burzikova’s place, so we had to return to Mr. Bartovic. Mrs. Bartovicova, Nana they called her, was terribly dissatisfied, as I’ve already mentioned, and was constantly provoking her husband. Once they were cooking together, because they were cooks by trade and had at one time lived and worked in Paris.
Mrs. Bartovicova was constantly harassing him. He told her, ‘If you’re going to be constantly nagging and annoying me, I’ll take this knife – that he was using to cut meat – I’ll stab myself with it.’ And she said, ‘Well, that I’d like to see! That I’d like to see!’ Mr. Bartovic really did it. The house had a garden in front, she ran out for help. By coincidence some garbage men were passing by and loaded him on their garbage truck. The hospital was in the center of Piestany, and we lived on the bank of the Vah River, which was about 100 meters from the hospital. They loaded him onto the truck and quickly drove him to the hospital. They operated on him, luckily he had only pierced his pericardium. The operation was a success, but he died of blood poisoning. We didn’t find out the details, but by chance someone from our family had a young nurse in hiding there, who had assisted during the operation. Before they anesthetized him, Mr. Bartovic had constantly repeated, ‘What have I done! I wanted to save the lives of two families and now I’ve abandoned them!’ We didn’t find this out until after the war.
And so we again returned to ‘Aunt’ Burzikova. In the meantime the German front command had taken up residence in her building. The commander picked out our room, we went into the cellar. My mother heard them speaking in German, ‘Hey, that woman seems kind of dark to me, don’t you think she’s a Jew?’ And the other said, ‘What’re you talking about, we’re close to Hungary, there all women are dark.’ So we seemed suspicious to them. My mother cooked for them, she helped Aunt Burzikova. The commander had an injured finger, which had become infected, and my mother used to go treat it. This is how we existed until about the beginning of April.
One day, I remember that a messenger came on a horse and ran upstairs to the commander. My mother saw that there was something going on up there. We heard a lot of stomping and running around. My mother asked one of them what had happened. ‘Well, tomorrow you’re already going to have the Russians here, we’re taking off.’ I was lying in the cellar with plaster falling on my head, as the Germans had blown up a bridge. The next day the Russians were already in Piestany. It was on the 3rd to the 4th of April. So we were saved. Actually, first the Romanian army arrived, and then the Russians. One day they rang at our door, and asked for some buckets. Everyone was afraid of the Russians, because they were doing all sorts of things – they didn’t know what a flush toilet was, drank water from it, they raped some women, and so on.
They took the buckets. Everyone was afraid of what it was they wanted to do. Then it came out that they had a herd of cows by the Vah, and needed to milk them. Well, suddenly a soldier arrived at our place with two big pails full of milk. And we weren’t afraid any more. But then there was this incident: someone told the Russians that there had been a German command post in Mrs. Burzikova’s house. The Russians came, stood there and shouted, ‘Where Germans!’ well, and auntie said that there weren’t any Germans. ‘Here Germans!’ And they pressed her terribly, and she got so horribly upset that she had a heart attack and died. We had this back luck, that everyone who helped us during the war, went to the next world after the war.
Mrs. Bartovicova was constantly harassing him. He told her, ‘If you’re going to be constantly nagging and annoying me, I’ll take this knife – that he was using to cut meat – I’ll stab myself with it.’ And she said, ‘Well, that I’d like to see! That I’d like to see!’ Mr. Bartovic really did it. The house had a garden in front, she ran out for help. By coincidence some garbage men were passing by and loaded him on their garbage truck. The hospital was in the center of Piestany, and we lived on the bank of the Vah River, which was about 100 meters from the hospital. They loaded him onto the truck and quickly drove him to the hospital. They operated on him, luckily he had only pierced his pericardium. The operation was a success, but he died of blood poisoning. We didn’t find out the details, but by chance someone from our family had a young nurse in hiding there, who had assisted during the operation. Before they anesthetized him, Mr. Bartovic had constantly repeated, ‘What have I done! I wanted to save the lives of two families and now I’ve abandoned them!’ We didn’t find this out until after the war.
And so we again returned to ‘Aunt’ Burzikova. In the meantime the German front command had taken up residence in her building. The commander picked out our room, we went into the cellar. My mother heard them speaking in German, ‘Hey, that woman seems kind of dark to me, don’t you think she’s a Jew?’ And the other said, ‘What’re you talking about, we’re close to Hungary, there all women are dark.’ So we seemed suspicious to them. My mother cooked for them, she helped Aunt Burzikova. The commander had an injured finger, which had become infected, and my mother used to go treat it. This is how we existed until about the beginning of April.
One day, I remember that a messenger came on a horse and ran upstairs to the commander. My mother saw that there was something going on up there. We heard a lot of stomping and running around. My mother asked one of them what had happened. ‘Well, tomorrow you’re already going to have the Russians here, we’re taking off.’ I was lying in the cellar with plaster falling on my head, as the Germans had blown up a bridge. The next day the Russians were already in Piestany. It was on the 3rd to the 4th of April. So we were saved. Actually, first the Romanian army arrived, and then the Russians. One day they rang at our door, and asked for some buckets. Everyone was afraid of the Russians, because they were doing all sorts of things – they didn’t know what a flush toilet was, drank water from it, they raped some women, and so on.
They took the buckets. Everyone was afraid of what it was they wanted to do. Then it came out that they had a herd of cows by the Vah, and needed to milk them. Well, suddenly a soldier arrived at our place with two big pails full of milk. And we weren’t afraid any more. But then there was this incident: someone told the Russians that there had been a German command post in Mrs. Burzikova’s house. The Russians came, stood there and shouted, ‘Where Germans!’ well, and auntie said that there weren’t any Germans. ‘Here Germans!’ And they pressed her terribly, and she got so horribly upset that she had a heart attack and died. We had this back luck, that everyone who helped us during the war, went to the next world after the war.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Judita Schvalbova