Tag #138890 - Interview #78577 (Katarina Lofflerova)

I never felt anti-Semitism when I went to the Lutheran lyceum after grammar school. The Lutheran church had quite good relations with the Jewish religious community. The teachers were all Lutherans. The class I was in, there were thirty-four of us, about thirty were boys, and at the beginning we were four girls, later only three. I was the only Jew among us girls, but in the other classes, there was only one. There were only four of us in the whole school, one of us had just graduated.

Among the boys, there were two Jews. We were totally good friends. They called me Vidor, and my friend who sat next to me was called Videsz, so they always called us out together. We were so close, that we did our homework together. She would come over to our house, spend the night, I went to their house, and I slept over.

One Sunday she says: ‘Mass is at noon, and I’m going to the cathedral. Are you coming?’ I said, ‘Why are you going there?’ ‘Well, I’m going to mass.’ ‘Mass? What for?’ ‘Because I’m Catholic.’ I had no idea what religion she was. I went with her to the cathedral. I asked her, ‘Do you know that I’m Jewish? ‘What does that mean, what’s that?’ I said, ‘Well, nothing. Just so you know.

In fall, we’ll have a holiday, I’ll take you to the synagogue.’ Well, of course, she came with me. This wasn’t a single incident I’m telling you about, a lot of things like this happened.