I was a little over 16 years old. Мy mother and I didn’t discuss what happened. We reached a silent agreement that we would not discuss things, but wait until our recollections became less painful. Well, I never got to know in what concentration camp my mother was.
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Displaying 36781 - 36810 of 50826 results
Kurt Sadlik
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A few days after we arrived at Poprad I was stopped by two Russian soldiers with automatic guns. They asked me something in Russian. I didn’t understand what it was about and they convoyed me to a KGB office [10]. They kept me in a cell for few days and then I was taken to a prison in Slovakia. I don’t know where it was.
In a few days I was taken to court. There were three people sitting at the table. They had some papers in front of them. They asked me something that I didn’t understand. They spoke Russian and there was no interpreter. The only thing I understood was ‘ten years’: it sounds similar in Russian and Slovakian.
I was taken back to prison and then convoyed somewhere else. I didn’t understand what the charges were. I didn’t have an attorney. They didn’t allow me to say ‘good bye’ to Mother or write her a letter. I never saw her again.
We went across the mountains and covered 150 kilometers. We reached Cracow. The town was ruined and destroyed. The only undamaged building was a prison. We were kept in this prison for two months. It was stuffed with inmates who were no less scared than I. They were accused of cooperation with the fascist regime only because they survived. Actually, this was our guess since there was no investigation. We didn’t even get to telling them about ourselves.
In a few days I was taken to court. There were three people sitting at the table. They had some papers in front of them. They asked me something that I didn’t understand. They spoke Russian and there was no interpreter. The only thing I understood was ‘ten years’: it sounds similar in Russian and Slovakian.
I was taken back to prison and then convoyed somewhere else. I didn’t understand what the charges were. I didn’t have an attorney. They didn’t allow me to say ‘good bye’ to Mother or write her a letter. I never saw her again.
We went across the mountains and covered 150 kilometers. We reached Cracow. The town was ruined and destroyed. The only undamaged building was a prison. We were kept in this prison for two months. It was stuffed with inmates who were no less scared than I. They were accused of cooperation with the fascist regime only because they survived. Actually, this was our guess since there was no investigation. We didn’t even get to telling them about ourselves.
Every day groups of prisoners were transported by train to the Gulag [11] in the north of the USSR. One day it was my turn. We were taken to a distribution camp in Magadan and from there we were convoyed to Norilsk in the permafrost area over 4500 kilometers from home.
There were camps – long wooden barracks with primitive two-tier plank beds – on the outskirts of the town. The camp was fenced with electrified barbed wire. On four sides there were guard towers. Soldiers with shepherd dogs patrolled the area. The dogs were specially trained to guard the inmates.
I was a political prisoner and stayed in a camp for political prisoners. There were criminal prisoners as well. They lived in more comfortable barracks that had better heating. We had stoves on the opposite sides of the barrack. They heated maximum 3 meters in the barrack and the rest of it was very cold. At night we took turns to warm up by a stove. In the morning we lined up and then convoyed to work at a mine. We returned to the barrack in the evening.
I don’t feel like talking about my life in the camp. It is unbearable to recall this time. There are lots of publications on this subjects and one can read about it in Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s [12] or other writers’ novels and stories. All I can say is that our life was no different from how Solzhenitsyn described it.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent people were suffering and dying there. I worked at a mine until an old man who worked as an electrician felt sorry for me. I became his apprentice. I was an industrious apprentice and learned what I needed in a short time. I began to work and my life became easier.
There were camps – long wooden barracks with primitive two-tier plank beds – on the outskirts of the town. The camp was fenced with electrified barbed wire. On four sides there were guard towers. Soldiers with shepherd dogs patrolled the area. The dogs were specially trained to guard the inmates.
I was a political prisoner and stayed in a camp for political prisoners. There were criminal prisoners as well. They lived in more comfortable barracks that had better heating. We had stoves on the opposite sides of the barrack. They heated maximum 3 meters in the barrack and the rest of it was very cold. At night we took turns to warm up by a stove. In the morning we lined up and then convoyed to work at a mine. We returned to the barrack in the evening.
I don’t feel like talking about my life in the camp. It is unbearable to recall this time. There are lots of publications on this subjects and one can read about it in Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s [12] or other writers’ novels and stories. All I can say is that our life was no different from how Solzhenitsyn described it.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent people were suffering and dying there. I worked at a mine until an old man who worked as an electrician felt sorry for me. I became his apprentice. I was an industrious apprentice and learned what I needed in a short time. I began to work and my life became easier.
I was released in 1953 after Stalin died. The director of the camp called me to his office and just said ‘Released.’ I was in prison for six years of my ten-year sentence. For many people Stalin’s death was a shock, even in the camp, but not so for me. I was happy that such a monster of cruelty croaked. However young I was I understood that all this suffering was his doing.
I obtained a certificate of release at the head office of the camp. My name was written as Karol Karolevich instead of Kurt Karlovich in it and they wrote a wrong year of birth: 1926 instead of 1928. Perhaps, they made me two years older intentionally to make me of age in court. I don’t know.
I obtained a certificate of release at the head office of the camp. My name was written as Karol Karolevich instead of Kurt Karlovich in it and they wrote a wrong year of birth: 1926 instead of 1928. Perhaps, they made me two years older intentionally to make me of age in court. I don’t know.
This certificate was my only document. I didn’t have permission to leave Norilsk, though. Every Saturday I had to register at the district militia office. I worked at the same mine where I had worked being a prisoner. The only difference was that I lived in a hostel for employees. There were seven of us in a room. I had meals at a diner at the mine. The accounting office deducted the cost of meals from my salary and the rest of it was mine.
I met my future wife in the hostel.
We began to see each other. I couldn’t marry Ludmila even when she got pregnant. The only document I had was my certificate of release. I was eager to restore my Slovakian citizenship, but it was out of question. In all offices I addressed they told me this was impossible.
I had little choice: either rot to death at the mine in Norilsk or obtain Soviet citizenship however much I hated this country. And I got this damned Soviet citizenship.
I had little choice: either rot to death at the mine in Norilsk or obtain Soviet citizenship however much I hated this country. And I got this damned Soviet citizenship.
At the age of six I went to a Jewish school in a beautiful two-storied building in the neighboring street. There was a synagogue near the school. We attended this synagogue. Our school was called cheder, but besides religion we studied general subjects: mathematics, Slovakian and German languages, history and geography. Boys and girls went to this school. It was a school for boys and girls.
We also studied Jewish religion and traditions. A rabbi taught us to read and write in Hebrew and Yiddish and translate from Hebrew to Yiddish. We learned prayers by heart and later read them when we learned to read in Hebrew. The rabbi read articles from the Torah and we discussed them.
I studied well. My favorite subjects were history, geography and Hebrew. I didn’t like mathematics. I just hated it. Before Purim we prepared Purimspiel performances. We performed in the school concert hall at Purim. Our spectators were our families. We also gave concerts at Chanukkah.
We also studied Jewish religion and traditions. A rabbi taught us to read and write in Hebrew and Yiddish and translate from Hebrew to Yiddish. We learned prayers by heart and later read them when we learned to read in Hebrew. The rabbi read articles from the Torah and we discussed them.
I studied well. My favorite subjects were history, geography and Hebrew. I didn’t like mathematics. I just hated it. Before Purim we prepared Purimspiel performances. We performed in the school concert hall at Purim. Our spectators were our families. We also gave concerts at Chanukkah.
There were no sport clubs at school. There used to be a football club, but for some reason it was closed. I was a sociable boy and got along well with other children at school. I had four close friends. Of course, my school friends were Jews. Later, when I grew older, I had Christian friends.
In the 1970s I traveled to Czechoslovakia. I went to where my school was. It was still there; only it had become a vocational school. When I came to Liptovsky Mikulas in 2000 the school was not there any longer.
In 1935 my grandmother Othelia died. She was 89 or 90 years old – I don’t know for sure. My grandmother was buried in the Jewish cemetery. There was a Jewish funeral. There were two Jewish cemeteries in Liptovsky Mikulas: one from the 19th-century and the new one. In 1936 my father caught a cold and died. He was buried near my grandmother’s grave. The funeral was Jewish as well. My mother’s brother Iosif recited the Kaddish after him.
I was eight when it happened. Our life changed for the worse. My mother had to work more: she did wealthier women’s hair and sewed at home. I also went to work. There were Bulgarian farmers in our village growing greeneries and vegetables. On summer vacations I did field work for them: weeding or pricking out. I got my daily earnings.
I also hauled brushwood for stoves from the power saw facility to the store where they were selling it. They were bundled into 5 kg piles. I hauled five to six bundles to the store located some 15 kilometers from the saw facility. I earned little, but I could pay for a ticket to the cinema or buy some lollipops.
I also hauled brushwood for stoves from the power saw facility to the store where they were selling it. They were bundled into 5 kg piles. I hauled five to six bundles to the store located some 15 kilometers from the saw facility. I earned little, but I could pay for a ticket to the cinema or buy some lollipops.
The Jewish community also supported us giving my mother a suit, a coat or a pair of boots for me since I was outgrowing my clothes fast. It also provided food for Sabbath and other holidays. There was a leather factory that belonged to the Geksner brothers in our town. They were very rich. The older brother held me during my brit milah. After my father died he always supported us with some money.
Jews had equal rights as Slovakian citizens. In 1939 Hitler attacked Poland. We were concerned about what was going to happen next. On the radio they often broadcast Hitler speeches. The local population knew German. We spoke Yiddish at home for the most part, and sometimes we spoke German and Slovakian. I took no interest in politics then, but I could feel how concerned and even scared my family was.
The local population knew German. We spoke Yiddish at home for the most part, and sometimes we spoke German and Slovakian.
In 1939 fascists appeared in Slovakia. They called themselves People’s Guard [6]. They wore black suits with armbands. They were Christian and Catholic, of course. They were rabble that didn’t want to work, but torture and rob Jews.
In 1940 German fascists occupied Czechia. Local fascists ruled in Slovakia [7]. Jews began to be persecuted.
In fall 1941 Jews were ordered to wear yellow stars [8] on the chest and arm, and were not allowed to go out without them. However, there was some Jewish life. The synagogues were open and Jews could attend them. In 1941 I turned 13 and had a bar mitzvah at the synagogue.
In fall 1941 Jews were ordered to wear yellow stars [8] on the chest and arm, and were not allowed to go out without them. However, there was some Jewish life. The synagogues were open and Jews could attend them. In 1941 I turned 13 and had a bar mitzvah at the synagogue.
In 1941 I turned 13 and had a bar mitzvah at the synagogue.
Throughout this whole period I was trying to find out what happened to my family in Slovakia. I started writing letters when I was allowed. I don’t think those letters ever crossed the border of the USSR. All letters were censured and read by KGB employees. I tried to search for my family through the Red Cross. I received their response ‘Neither found dead nor alive in Czechoslovakia.’ It also said that my mother, Irina Sadlik, nee Bogner, died in 1947.
In Novosibirsk I began to work as an electrician at a construction site and entered an extramural department in the Novosibirsk Energy Technical School.
My wife got a residential permit [13] to live in Novosibirsk while I was not allowed to reside in big towns. I was allowed to live in a village 15 kilometers from Novosibirsk where I received a room. Every day I had to get a ride to work. It was hard and I even quit school three months before graduation.
In Petropavlovsk I went to work at the construction of a big power plant where I was an electrician. We received a room in a hostel.
When I went to school in 1935 I spent all my summer vacations with my grandmother in Tuszyn.
Grandmother had a small stone house in Tuszyn. Here were three or four rooms in the house.
Grandmother spoke Polish with her neighbors and Yiddish and Slovak to me. She only spoke Yiddish with her mother.
She had long black hair with streaks of gray that she wore in a knot. She didn’t cover her head. She wore common clothes like all other women in smaller towns at that time. She wore light dresses and shoes with heels.
My grandmother lived in a Polish neighborhood. I cannot say for sure, but I don’t think Jews had their own Jewish district in Tuszyn. I played with Polish children. I remember that grandmother took me to her friends or relatives whose house was also in a Polish neighborhood.
My grandmother wasn’t fanatically religious. She didn’t wear a wig. She went to the synagogue on Jewish holidays and observed Sabbath and Jewish holidays at home. As far as I remember, Grandmother didn’t observe the kashrut.
We never heard about my grandmother again after Poland was occupied in 1939 [1]. I think she perished during the German occupation.
All I know about my maternal grandfather is that his last name was Bogner and that he perished during World War I. He was not young, but he volunteered to the front.