Selected text
1968 was a very interesting year [see Prague Spring] [35]. We had jobs, I was quite satisfied as a tourist guide. I didn’t have big expectations. A person could find pleasure, could live a cultural life, fantastic shows were staged one after the other. My husband was head accountant at a firm.
There wasn’t one single Jew among his colleagues. It wasn’t an issue, especially not here in Bratislava; it was an absolutely tolerant city, where nobody knew if you were or weren’t Jewish. Our neighbors in the building weren’t Jewish, just us. We had a good relationship with the director.
The company director had to be a party member and he was very nice, but he liked to have one glass too many. And then he did such idiotic things. It made you angry, my god, a man of this importance and he drinks!
Before 21st August 1968 [when the Soviet, Hungarian, East German, Polish and Bulgarian Armies occupied the country and put down the so-called Prague Spring.], we knew that everything was happening here. After midnight the telephone rang. Since I was closer to it, I jumped out of bed first.
I picked up the phone and the director said in Slovakian, of course, ‘Horrible, one tank after the other, how many people, full of Soviet soldiers, terrible!’ I said, ‘The director of this, the director of that, sir you’re a drunken pig.’
My husband jumped out of bed at that, he takes the phone from my hand, what right do I have to talk to the director that way. In the meantime, I went over – as a matter of fact, we live down in Leskova Street – to the window and saw what was then Malinovska Street. Oh my God, one tank after the other, it was really true!
We lived on the first floor [up]. Below us on the ground floor lived a very nice married couple, Dr. Gallik, a doctor and his wife. They had three boys studying at the Academy. We got along well. The lady was from Kecskemet, didn’t know a word of anything except Hungarian.
She went to the window, and she yelled over to me, ‘Kato, Kato, they just called from the hospital that the Russians have invaded us.’ I said, ‘I know, us too, I just found out.’ ‘Come down quickly.’ It could have been about two in the morning, we went down like we were, in our pajamas.
The man, the doctor, paced up and down. ‘Well what do we do now, what do we do?’ The woman, with the utmost calm said, ‘We drink a stampedli of cognac, then I make black coffee, we drink that, that’s what we’ll do.’ And that’s what we did.
Then the lady says, ‘Kato and I will go down to the corner where they sell food and go shopping. We need flour, pasta, rice, sugar at home.’ It was six in the morning already, we got ourselves together, us two women, and got dressed.
The shop opens at seven, so let’s get there as early as we can. Well, there was a kilometer long line there already. We waited in line anyway, meanwhile we talked, we shopped, we could barely drag home the two big bags of goods. I didn’t have to buy anything in the world for three months, because the pantry was full.
Anti-Semitism. Now I don’t want to say that it got stronger and stronger, but it didn’t get much smaller. I never came into conflict over my Jewish heritage. During the socialist time, I tried to immediately let them know that I was Jewish, because I’ve always liked to know what side we stand on, who’s the enemy and who’s the friend.
Once, on 8th March, on the occasion of International Women’s Day we got together in a restaurant, where we had lunch. This was still in Nitra. Everybody got a cup, of course not with tea in it, but wine, and a really nice atmosphere ensued. I thought, how could I tell all these people, that I would know who’s the enemy and who isn’t.
The one who didn’t come over, was the vice-director. So I asked, ‘And so and so, how come that he isn’t with us today?’ One of the colleagues answered, ‘He couldn’t make it, because they called him in to the temple [used in Hungarian for Christian church as well].’ I said, ‘Temple?’ – I was totally surprised, as he was such a serious party member – ‘but now, in the afternoon?
Is he Catholic or Evangelist?’ ‘Don’t be funny, when we say temple, we mean the party center.’ I said, ‘I thought they really were going to the temple for religion, that’s why I go.’ They looked at me. As a matter of fact, I had raised my voice, and pretty loudly said, so that those sitting around me could hear and tell the others – ‘I’m a Jewish lady. I’m not religious, but I’m a believer. And I make it to the synagogue at least once or twice a year.’
I didn’t see any surprise, they must have thought, I don’t know what, but I had an absolutely good relationship with them all the way until I retired. There I never heard a word [about it]. After retirement, I was a tourist guide at the Cedok travel agency. I guided for a lot of Germans.
I bought a magen David, which I put on a chain, and I always wear it, so from the first moment they see who I am. In this way, I never had a problem my whole life. I always tried to say, be careful, because I’m Jewish.
We aren’t religious, but I’m a believer. I didn’t direct my daughter in the spirit of Orthodoxy, because I myself received a free upbringing. Since I worked as a tourist guide, I could always take the time, if I wanted, to go to the temple.
I never concealed my visits to the temple; there wasn’t anyone who I ever had to conceal it, or anything else, from. When there were high holidays, my daughter also came with me to the temple. She doesn’t pray, doesn’t talk about it, it’s not an issue.
Such a beautiful Christmas tree, as the one we have every year, is hard to find anywhere. Since my daughter’s marriage in the 1970s, we started decorating a Christmas tree again. Then, when my daughter got a job, she met her present husband. He husband isn’t Jewish, he’s an atheist, so my daughter is as well.
There wasn’t one single Jew among his colleagues. It wasn’t an issue, especially not here in Bratislava; it was an absolutely tolerant city, where nobody knew if you were or weren’t Jewish. Our neighbors in the building weren’t Jewish, just us. We had a good relationship with the director.
The company director had to be a party member and he was very nice, but he liked to have one glass too many. And then he did such idiotic things. It made you angry, my god, a man of this importance and he drinks!
Before 21st August 1968 [when the Soviet, Hungarian, East German, Polish and Bulgarian Armies occupied the country and put down the so-called Prague Spring.], we knew that everything was happening here. After midnight the telephone rang. Since I was closer to it, I jumped out of bed first.
I picked up the phone and the director said in Slovakian, of course, ‘Horrible, one tank after the other, how many people, full of Soviet soldiers, terrible!’ I said, ‘The director of this, the director of that, sir you’re a drunken pig.’
My husband jumped out of bed at that, he takes the phone from my hand, what right do I have to talk to the director that way. In the meantime, I went over – as a matter of fact, we live down in Leskova Street – to the window and saw what was then Malinovska Street. Oh my God, one tank after the other, it was really true!
We lived on the first floor [up]. Below us on the ground floor lived a very nice married couple, Dr. Gallik, a doctor and his wife. They had three boys studying at the Academy. We got along well. The lady was from Kecskemet, didn’t know a word of anything except Hungarian.
She went to the window, and she yelled over to me, ‘Kato, Kato, they just called from the hospital that the Russians have invaded us.’ I said, ‘I know, us too, I just found out.’ ‘Come down quickly.’ It could have been about two in the morning, we went down like we were, in our pajamas.
The man, the doctor, paced up and down. ‘Well what do we do now, what do we do?’ The woman, with the utmost calm said, ‘We drink a stampedli of cognac, then I make black coffee, we drink that, that’s what we’ll do.’ And that’s what we did.
Then the lady says, ‘Kato and I will go down to the corner where they sell food and go shopping. We need flour, pasta, rice, sugar at home.’ It was six in the morning already, we got ourselves together, us two women, and got dressed.
The shop opens at seven, so let’s get there as early as we can. Well, there was a kilometer long line there already. We waited in line anyway, meanwhile we talked, we shopped, we could barely drag home the two big bags of goods. I didn’t have to buy anything in the world for three months, because the pantry was full.
Anti-Semitism. Now I don’t want to say that it got stronger and stronger, but it didn’t get much smaller. I never came into conflict over my Jewish heritage. During the socialist time, I tried to immediately let them know that I was Jewish, because I’ve always liked to know what side we stand on, who’s the enemy and who’s the friend.
Once, on 8th March, on the occasion of International Women’s Day we got together in a restaurant, where we had lunch. This was still in Nitra. Everybody got a cup, of course not with tea in it, but wine, and a really nice atmosphere ensued. I thought, how could I tell all these people, that I would know who’s the enemy and who isn’t.
The one who didn’t come over, was the vice-director. So I asked, ‘And so and so, how come that he isn’t with us today?’ One of the colleagues answered, ‘He couldn’t make it, because they called him in to the temple [used in Hungarian for Christian church as well].’ I said, ‘Temple?’ – I was totally surprised, as he was such a serious party member – ‘but now, in the afternoon?
Is he Catholic or Evangelist?’ ‘Don’t be funny, when we say temple, we mean the party center.’ I said, ‘I thought they really were going to the temple for religion, that’s why I go.’ They looked at me. As a matter of fact, I had raised my voice, and pretty loudly said, so that those sitting around me could hear and tell the others – ‘I’m a Jewish lady. I’m not religious, but I’m a believer. And I make it to the synagogue at least once or twice a year.’
I didn’t see any surprise, they must have thought, I don’t know what, but I had an absolutely good relationship with them all the way until I retired. There I never heard a word [about it]. After retirement, I was a tourist guide at the Cedok travel agency. I guided for a lot of Germans.
I bought a magen David, which I put on a chain, and I always wear it, so from the first moment they see who I am. In this way, I never had a problem my whole life. I always tried to say, be careful, because I’m Jewish.
We aren’t religious, but I’m a believer. I didn’t direct my daughter in the spirit of Orthodoxy, because I myself received a free upbringing. Since I worked as a tourist guide, I could always take the time, if I wanted, to go to the temple.
I never concealed my visits to the temple; there wasn’t anyone who I ever had to conceal it, or anything else, from. When there were high holidays, my daughter also came with me to the temple. She doesn’t pray, doesn’t talk about it, it’s not an issue.
Such a beautiful Christmas tree, as the one we have every year, is hard to find anywhere. Since my daughter’s marriage in the 1970s, we started decorating a Christmas tree again. Then, when my daughter got a job, she met her present husband. He husband isn’t Jewish, he’s an atheist, so my daughter is as well.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Katarina Löfflerova
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