Selected text
As I’ve already mentioned, I was born in 1924 in Preselany. I didn’t go to nursery school, basically my mother brought me up, as she was at home. I didn’t have a nanny, but for one year in Vycapy I had a teacher. At that time I was attending people’s school, and apparently so that I wouldn’t have to commute to school, I had a teacher for one year. He taught me all subjects. When I was little I liked to play. I used to run around the courtyard, played marbles, kicked a ball around and broke windows. We played together with other children. In the village we romped about in hay and on haystacks.
When I was 6, I began attending school; as I’ve already mentioned, the first three years I attended elementary school in Topolcany, then I attended high school in Nitra. When I was attending school in Nitra, I didn’t have very much spare time. I had to study. It’s hard to say which subjects were my favorite. Probably geography and history. In high school we had this one professor. He was named Schüt, and was Czech. We liked him. He taught us geography. He was a very approachable person. We used to go skating with him. Well, and what student likes a teacher that gives him an F? I didn’t have a teacher who I didn’t totally dislike. I didn’t perceive any anti-Semitism from my classmates and teachers. Up to 1942 it was an equal relationship. I didn’t go to any activity clubs after school. Just religion was compulsory, which I attended. Then in the winter we used to skating, and in the summer swimming. Ninety percent of my friends in school weren’t Jews. We got along very well, even today I still meet up with the ones that are still alive. My friends outside of school were also not Jewish. When I was in the village, we played soccer together, rode bikes, in the summer we swam, and so on. That’s what village life was like in those days.
My hobby was farming. It had interested me since I was small. When I came home from school, I threw my schoolbag in the corner and ran outside, out to the courtyard, out to the fields. Except for school, I didn’t devote my time to political, sports or cultural activities. Only when the school held some sort of event, then I took part. I also wasn’t a member of any club. We spent Saturdays like a workday. Back then we attended school on Saturdays.
I remember the first time I drove a car. My father had a car, now I don’t know what year it was, whether 1941 or 1942. I liked driving very much. I learned to drive when I was still little, on a tractor. It simply interested me. Our driver had to join the army, and my father had to go to Bratislava with a notary from Jelsovec. So I drove, and at that time I didn’t have a driver’s license, nothing. I had to sit on a suitcase so that I could see better, and reach the pedals, and I drove to Bratislava. We of course didn’t go into the town. We stopped before Bratislava, I remember that. Our car was a Skoda. I think my father bought it in 1939.
I don’t remember the first time I took a train. I only remember my parents taking me to Budapest when I was 5 or 6. We arrived in Budapest in the evening, and when we stopped, Budapest was all lit up, which I’d never seen before. So back then I told my parents how nicely lit up it was, beautiful. It was the first time in my life I’d seen a city lit up like that. I ate with my parents in a restaurant. I don’t remember it exactly. They took me to a restaurant when I was bigger. For example, I went with them to Hungary, at that time we ate in a restaurant, but I don’t remember the details.
When I was 6, I began attending school; as I’ve already mentioned, the first three years I attended elementary school in Topolcany, then I attended high school in Nitra. When I was attending school in Nitra, I didn’t have very much spare time. I had to study. It’s hard to say which subjects were my favorite. Probably geography and history. In high school we had this one professor. He was named Schüt, and was Czech. We liked him. He taught us geography. He was a very approachable person. We used to go skating with him. Well, and what student likes a teacher that gives him an F? I didn’t have a teacher who I didn’t totally dislike. I didn’t perceive any anti-Semitism from my classmates and teachers. Up to 1942 it was an equal relationship. I didn’t go to any activity clubs after school. Just religion was compulsory, which I attended. Then in the winter we used to skating, and in the summer swimming. Ninety percent of my friends in school weren’t Jews. We got along very well, even today I still meet up with the ones that are still alive. My friends outside of school were also not Jewish. When I was in the village, we played soccer together, rode bikes, in the summer we swam, and so on. That’s what village life was like in those days.
My hobby was farming. It had interested me since I was small. When I came home from school, I threw my schoolbag in the corner and ran outside, out to the courtyard, out to the fields. Except for school, I didn’t devote my time to political, sports or cultural activities. Only when the school held some sort of event, then I took part. I also wasn’t a member of any club. We spent Saturdays like a workday. Back then we attended school on Saturdays.
I remember the first time I drove a car. My father had a car, now I don’t know what year it was, whether 1941 or 1942. I liked driving very much. I learned to drive when I was still little, on a tractor. It simply interested me. Our driver had to join the army, and my father had to go to Bratislava with a notary from Jelsovec. So I drove, and at that time I didn’t have a driver’s license, nothing. I had to sit on a suitcase so that I could see better, and reach the pedals, and I drove to Bratislava. We of course didn’t go into the town. We stopped before Bratislava, I remember that. Our car was a Skoda. I think my father bought it in 1939.
I don’t remember the first time I took a train. I only remember my parents taking me to Budapest when I was 5 or 6. We arrived in Budapest in the evening, and when we stopped, Budapest was all lit up, which I’d never seen before. So back then I told my parents how nicely lit up it was, beautiful. It was the first time in my life I’d seen a city lit up like that. I ate with my parents in a restaurant. I don’t remember it exactly. They took me to a restaurant when I was bigger. For example, I went with them to Hungary, at that time we ate in a restaurant, but I don’t remember the details.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Bedrich Hecht