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We didn’t find out what happened to the rest of the family until after we returned. Two people from Nitra told us about our father’s fate, about his death in the concentration camp. He had asked them to convey to my brother and me that we should get along well together, for us to support each other, that he wouldn’t be returning. He knew that he was going into the gas chamber. They even told us when exactly he died, on the 26th, Christmastime. He was 60 years old. From the entire extended family, nine of us survived. The rest died. We arrived, we’d survived. It was an exceptional event. I went home to Vycapy, to the apartment where we’d lived, but it was empty, ransacked. So we started from scratch. It’s hard to say how the neighbors reacted when I returned home. I didn’t feel antagonism from them, but those that had blood on their hands, Guardists and the like, they weren’t thrilled by it, and thought that we’d exact vengeance.
The way my life continued after the war was that my mother, who’d returned, lived with me. Aunt Cilke [Cecilia] had one son return [Tibor]; they lived together, and my other aunt [Gizela], who’d lost her husband and son also lived with them. Three of my girl cousins who’d survived left for Israel. I think that as none of their family had returned, and they were young, they decided to leave and started their own families there. They had a hard life, and even today don’t have it easy. Up until 1989 [12] I didn’t have any contact with them, and correspondence with them was completely limited as well. At that time it would have been detrimental to me and my family. They were watching people and opening letters. It wasn’t desirable to be receiving letters, especially from Israel. After 1989 I got in touch with them, and we also went to Israel to have a look, and they were here as well. I don’t know, it’s hard to say if I’d emigrate. I guess as a young man I’d have gone, but I had my mother... I wouldn’t have left her here alone. I was never interested in politics. After the war, when I became independent, I saw my cousin Tibor the most, who’d been in the same building as I. He was a very decent boy. He never married.
For me it wasn’t important whether my friends were Jews or not, neither when I was a child nor now that I’m an adult. I didn’t consider it to be a priority. My wife isn’t Jewish either, I didn’t consider it important. My mother, who lived with us, did have some objections, but in the end agreed and accepted my decision. My brother didn’t have any problems with it. I got married after the war, in 1952.
The way my life continued after the war was that my mother, who’d returned, lived with me. Aunt Cilke [Cecilia] had one son return [Tibor]; they lived together, and my other aunt [Gizela], who’d lost her husband and son also lived with them. Three of my girl cousins who’d survived left for Israel. I think that as none of their family had returned, and they were young, they decided to leave and started their own families there. They had a hard life, and even today don’t have it easy. Up until 1989 [12] I didn’t have any contact with them, and correspondence with them was completely limited as well. At that time it would have been detrimental to me and my family. They were watching people and opening letters. It wasn’t desirable to be receiving letters, especially from Israel. After 1989 I got in touch with them, and we also went to Israel to have a look, and they were here as well. I don’t know, it’s hard to say if I’d emigrate. I guess as a young man I’d have gone, but I had my mother... I wouldn’t have left her here alone. I was never interested in politics. After the war, when I became independent, I saw my cousin Tibor the most, who’d been in the same building as I. He was a very decent boy. He never married.
For me it wasn’t important whether my friends were Jews or not, neither when I was a child nor now that I’m an adult. I didn’t consider it to be a priority. My wife isn’t Jewish either, I didn’t consider it important. My mother, who lived with us, did have some objections, but in the end agreed and accepted my decision. My brother didn’t have any problems with it. I got married after the war, in 1952.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Bedrich Hecht