Tag #155078 - Interview #103673 (Ladislav Roth Biography)

We spoke Hungarian at home. There were Slovak, Czech, Romanian, Jewish, German and Hungarian schools in Uzhgorod. My parents sent me and then my younger brother to a Slovak school. My sister went to a Czech school in the center of the town. The Slovak school was near our house, so I guess, that was why we were sent there. [Besides geographical proximity the reason for choosing Slovak and Czech schools for Hungarian speaking Jewish children probably was getting accustomed to the state languages.] There was no segregation of schoolchildren to Jews or non-Jews. There were few other Jewish children in my class, but we never faced any anti-Semitic attitudes. Well, truth to tell, I had an incident with a senior boy once.  We had breakfast at home and took sandwiches to school to eat them during an interval.  Once a senior pupil wanted to take my sandwich. I didn’t give it to him and he called me ‘zidovska svina’ [Slovak for Jewish pig]. I hit him. Then a teacher came to find out what happened. I told him and he stroked my hair. As for my offender, he was not allowed to come to school for two weeks. I was never hurt again.