My mother’s two older brothers moved to the USA in the 1900s. I have no information about them. There was no correspondence.
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Displaying 36811 - 36840 of 50826 results
Kurt Sadlik
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Liptovsky Mikulas was a small town. Jews constituted a significant part of its population. I cannot say exactly, but I guess Jews constituted about one third of the total population. There was no Jewish district in the town. Only gypsies [Roma] lived separately. They installed their tents on the outskirts of the town behind the river. Our parents didn’t allow us to go to this area.
Jews enjoyed a free life in Slovakia. It was a truly democratic country. The president of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk [2], who ruled before 1935, and his successor, Benes [3], were intelligent, progressive and democratic people. There were no restrictions for Jews.
There were many rich Jews in the country. In the town there were two leather factories, a knitwear factory, a distillery and an alcohol factory – these were owned by Jews. There were many smaller and bigger Jewish stores. Many Jews were doctors and lawyers. And there were, of course, poor Jewish craftsmen living from hand to mouth.
Jews enjoyed a free life in Slovakia. It was a truly democratic country. The president of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk [2], who ruled before 1935, and his successor, Benes [3], were intelligent, progressive and democratic people. There were no restrictions for Jews.
There were many rich Jews in the country. In the town there were two leather factories, a knitwear factory, a distillery and an alcohol factory – these were owned by Jews. There were many smaller and bigger Jewish stores. Many Jews were doctors and lawyers. And there were, of course, poor Jewish craftsmen living from hand to mouth.
There were two synagogues in Liptovsky Mikulas. There was a big and beautiful synagogue in the center of the town. It was always full of Jews during the Sabbath and holidays. And there was a smaller one for orthodox Hasidim [4]. There were 10-15 Hasid families in the town.
The majority of the Jews observed Jewish traditions, Sabbath and Jewish holidays, but they were not fanatically religious. It never happened with them that a man would read his religious books all day long and then discuss this with others when his family was hungry, like it happened with Hasidim.
The majority of the Jews observed Jewish traditions, Sabbath and Jewish holidays, but they were not fanatically religious. It never happened with them that a man would read his religious books all day long and then discuss this with others when his family was hungry, like it happened with Hasidim.
The bigger synagogue is still there. I visited Liptovsky Mikulas in 2000. It was restored and turned into a Jewish museum. Due to the fine acoustic a part of the synagogue was given to the Philharmonic. The synagogue looks as beautiful as when I was a child.
There was a big and rich Jewish community in the town. I don’t know any details about its organization, but I know that the community supported lonely people or poor families. Orphaned children and children from poor families had free education. The community distributed presents on all Jewish holidays: Purim, Pesach, Chanukkah, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. They provided matzah to poor families at Pesach and food for Sabbath.
My mother’s family was religious. My mother, her brother and sisters knew Hebrew. They prayed in Hebrew and knew prayers by heart. I cannot say where they got religious education. In their family they observed Sabbath and Jewish holidays. They lived in Liptovsky Mikulas with their families.
My mother’s older sister Cecilia was married to a tavern owner. She helped her husband in the tavern and did housekeeping. Their children also helped them when they grew big enough to do work. Cecilia’s husband died and she took over his business.
They had four children: sons Vilo, Altrey and Lazo and daughter Marguta. Cecilia’s older son Vilo made gravestones at the Jewish cemetery. Lazo was a car mechanic and owned a garage. Only wealthy people had cars. Lazo did repairs and gave driving classes. Altrey was an attendant in a hospital. Marguta was married, she was a housewife.
At the beginning of World War II Lazo converted to Lutheranism, though reluctantly. He understood that a Jew didn’t have a chance to survive during the fascist regime. His wife was also a Lutheran.
Cecilia had high blood pressure and Altrey managed to hide her at the hospital where he was working as an attendant. She stayed there throughout the occupation period. Cecilia’s other three children perished in a German concentration camp. This is all the information I have about Cecilia and Altrey.
My mother’s brother Iosif was a tinsmith.
Iosif trained his son to be a tinsmith. They worked together. They roofed houses and installed water piping.
The family perished during World War II, only Peter survived.
After her husband died Adelina became a dressmaker. Adelina’s sons became apprentices of a bricklayer and became bricklayers.
During World War II Adelina, Zita and the sons were in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Adelina’s sons and their families perished in the camp.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
Zita and Adelina returned home after they were released from the camp. After the war they moved to Israel.
I don’t know how my parents met. My mother never told me about it. I think my parents had a traditional Jewish wedding. This had to be so at the time. At least, I know that all of my cousins had traditional Jewish weddings with a chuppah and klezmer music. My parents got married in 1925.
After the wedding my parents settled down in the house of my mother’s parents. It was a one-storied brick house divided into two sections: my mother’s sister Adelina lived in one and our family and Grandmother Othelia lived in the other part. There were two big rooms in each section and a big common kitchen in the central part. There were separate entranceways to the house. We lived in the center of the town and didn’t have a garden or livestock. There was a small flower garden near the house and a woodshed in the backyard.
My father drove the only bus in the town that commuted from the railway station to the hotel and then to the Tatry Mountain. There were big caves near our town. There were ancient idols, an ice cave and grottos with stalactites and stalagmites there. It was a place of interest where my father took tourists.
A bus driver was a popular person at that time since cars were rare. Only rich people had cars. There were two or three in our town. The main means of transport were wagons and carts. When I was five or six my father took me with him and all other boys envied me a lot.
A bus driver was a popular person at that time since cars were rare. Only rich people had cars. There were two or three in our town. The main means of transport were wagons and carts. When I was five or six my father took me with him and all other boys envied me a lot.
We didn’t have a place to live or work. We rented a room and our heart sank every time there was a knock on the door. We were afraid that a district militia would come. We didn’t have residential permits. It was like a closed circle: when I came to a job interview they told me that I needed a residential permit to get a job and when I went to the militia office to request a permit they replied that they would only issue it if I got a job.
Fortunately, our landlords were kind people. They helped us to obtain a permit for temporary residence and this was sufficient for me to get employed. I went to work as an electrician at the distillery. We received a room in a half-ruined barrack. I repaired it myself. The four of us lived in this room for 14 years.
Fortunately, our landlords were kind people. They helped us to obtain a permit for temporary residence and this was sufficient for me to get employed. I went to work as an electrician at the distillery. We received a room in a half-ruined barrack. I repaired it myself. The four of us lived in this room for 14 years.
In 1970 a huge marble board with the names of Jews, residents of the town who perished during World War II, engraved on it was installed at the entrance to the cemetery. I found the names of our relatives and my school friends on this board. There is a monument installed at the beginning of the cemetery.
When I came on another visit in 1991 there was nothing left. The cemetery and the monuments had been removed. They didn’t remove the graves to another location. They graded the area and planted a park. It was a blasphemy for me.
I walked along the asphalted walkways in the park recalling the spots where my grandmother, mother, cousin sister and father were buried. There were benches on their bones. This was heartbreaking. It was fearful. This was humiliation of the dead and mockery on the memory of the living. They had removed the two-meter high fence around the cemetery and the memorial board.
When I came on another visit in 1991 there was nothing left. The cemetery and the monuments had been removed. They didn’t remove the graves to another location. They graded the area and planted a park. It was a blasphemy for me.
I walked along the asphalted walkways in the park recalling the spots where my grandmother, mother, cousin sister and father were buried. There were benches on their bones. This was heartbreaking. It was fearful. This was humiliation of the dead and mockery on the memory of the living. They had removed the two-meter high fence around the cemetery and the memorial board.
When Jews were leaving for Israel in the 1970s I didn’t consider emigration. Firstly, we didn’t have enough money to move there. Secondly, my wife didn’t want to move there. I, actually, didn’t take any effort to convince her. ‘Look before you leap’ is my principle. I didn’t even want to move to my Motherland. My wife liked it in Slovakia and she wished we moved there.
I decided to move to Slovakia, but then I thought, ‘Who needs me there with two children? My mother and my father are gone. I have no sister or brother there. Does my cousin brother need me? He has his family and his cares.’ Besides, I realized that I would always be an immigrant from the USSR. And there was no friendly attitude toward the USSR. I had a job and an apartment here. I earned my living and I didn’t feel strong enough to start my life from zero. I considered this – and stayed here.
I decided to move to Slovakia, but then I thought, ‘Who needs me there with two children? My mother and my father are gone. I have no sister or brother there. Does my cousin brother need me? He has his family and his cares.’ Besides, I realized that I would always be an immigrant from the USSR. And there was no friendly attitude toward the USSR. I had a job and an apartment here. I earned my living and I didn’t feel strong enough to start my life from zero. I considered this – and stayed here.
In the course of many years I wrote in all application forms that I had served a sentence in prison, until in 1991 I received a letter of rehabilitation [19] from the KGB office in Moscow due to absence of corpus delicti. It said that the court verdict in my case was illegal. And, of course, they misspelled my name and put a wrong year of birth. Well, let them, but who is responsible for my broken life, for the youth spent in camps, for my life here? Nobody is responsible…
,
After WW2
See text in interview
I won’t mention my daughters’ and grandchildren names. I’ve lived my life and I do not have fears for myself, but I fear for them. Even though the Communist Party is not in power in independent Ukraine any longer, but communists are too ardent in their strive for power. I fear to think what it would be like if they ever take power again. I don’t want my daughters or grandchildren to have problems just because I am too open here.
My girls were nice and obedient daughters when they were children. They always knew that their father is a Jew, but nationality didn’t matter to them.
Vera, my older daughter, graduated from the Technical Faculty of Uzhorod University. She went to work as an engineer in a design office.
Vera is married to a Ukrainian man.
My younger daughter Irina married a Jewish man.
When perestroika [20] began in the early 1980s I understood that the Soviet power was coming to an end. I wouldn’t argue that we’ve gained freedom, but who knows when and what price we shall have to pay for it? People got freedom and an opportunity to travel abroad. They see live in capitalist countries and they’ve changed their outlooks. Yes, things were less expensive in the Soviet Union, but there were long lines to get even a piece of meat!
However, I didn’t think the Soviet regime would collapse that fast. It was powerful, indeed. And all of a sudden it ended in a day. I was positive about the downfall of the USSR. Of course, it should have been arranged differently. There were economic ties between the republics that were also broken. Factories in Uzhorod cooperated with Kazakhstan, Siberia and Moscow. Those ties are gone and nobody cares.
Machine building, mechanic, equipment plant Uzhorodpribor, Electric Engine, gas equipment plants were shut down. Nobody needs them and nobody cares about former employees. It’s like communists whose slogan was ‘we shall destroy to foundations the world of violence and then…’ Well, they’ve destroyed the past. But God knows what they will build.
People of power are all the same, only now they call themselves democrats and yesterday they were communists. They don’t care a bit about people who are like cattle for them.
I don’t believe in anything with this government. They take loans from abroad for restoration of industries and where is this money? What industries have they restored? People sell rags in markets: they are former professors and academicians. Teachers and doctors are miserably poor. People search for food leftovers in garbage containers. There were homeless dogs looking for leftovers in garbage pans, but not people. The situation is terrible.
I am against communism, but it has never been like this. One could make ends meet during the Soviet regime. Children could study and education was mandatory. Nowadays nobody cares whether a child is at school or in the streets. The state doesn’t need us. There are no jobs; people have to think by themselves how to live on… Is this democracy? No, policy is truly disgusting!
Machine building, mechanic, equipment plant Uzhorodpribor, Electric Engine, gas equipment plants were shut down. Nobody needs them and nobody cares about former employees. It’s like communists whose slogan was ‘we shall destroy to foundations the world of violence and then…’ Well, they’ve destroyed the past. But God knows what they will build.
People of power are all the same, only now they call themselves democrats and yesterday they were communists. They don’t care a bit about people who are like cattle for them.
I don’t believe in anything with this government. They take loans from abroad for restoration of industries and where is this money? What industries have they restored? People sell rags in markets: they are former professors and academicians. Teachers and doctors are miserably poor. People search for food leftovers in garbage containers. There were homeless dogs looking for leftovers in garbage pans, but not people. The situation is terrible.
I am against communism, but it has never been like this. One could make ends meet during the Soviet regime. Children could study and education was mandatory. Nowadays nobody cares whether a child is at school or in the streets. The state doesn’t need us. There are no jobs; people have to think by themselves how to live on… Is this democracy? No, policy is truly disgusting!