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Oral history interview with Letícia Tandlmajerová

Oral History

Letícia Tandlmajerová, born in 1920 in Hlohovec, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), describes Jews from abroad coming to Hlohovec; the German occupation of the town; the arrest of the town’s Jews by Hlinka guards cooperating with German troops; the sight of an elderly woman beaten and covered in blood; poor relations between Jews and non-Jews in Hlohovec; witnessing the arrest of Jews by Hlinka Guards; restrictions against Jews and the confiscation of Jewish-owned businesses; the arrest and release of her boss; the deportation of a Jewish friend; the deportation of the Jewish population; an auction of Jewish property; and the aftermath of the war.

Oral history interview with Helena Spálová

Oral History

Helena Spálová, born May 28, 1928 in Hlohovec, Slovakia, discusses her family life before the creation of the Slovak State; the local prewar economy; her mother who worked for Jewish families; the looting of Jewish stores after the Slovak State was declared; seeing a schoolmate and other Jews being deported at the train station; witnessing townspeople carry items away after they looted a family friend’s home; hearing Gardist songs played from speakers as soldiers marched; the "aryanization" of local Jewish businesses; Jewish families living secretly in basements and other hiding places; a family’s arrest after their hiding place was discovered; secretly baking matzah with other non-Jewish women; and the postwar return of Jews who were in hiding during the war.

Oral history interview with Wiliam Hojer

Oral History

Wiliam Hojer, born in 1927 in Sered’, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), describes the removal of Jewish rights with the establishment of the Slovak State; the requirement that Jews wear Star of David badges and the confiscation of Jewish property; the deportation of the Jewish population; the looting of Jewish property; the sight of Jews being transported in train cars; the labor camp in Sered’; and the aftermath of the war.

Oral history interview with Magda Pašteková

Oral History

Magda Pašteková, born in 1923 in Sered’, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), describes living in Sered’ during the establishment of the Slovak State; attending school with Jewish girls; her friendly relations with the local Jewish population; teenagers harassing Jews; the labor camp in Sered’; the deportation of the Jewish population; the sale of Jewish homes after deportation; and the aftermath of the war.

Oral history interview with Anna Kmecová

Oral History

Anna Kmecová, born September 1, 1932 in Giraltovce, Slovakia, discusses her prewar friendships with Jewish children; the separation of Jewish students from Catholic and Lutheran students; how Lutheran students had to do chores while Catholic children did not; witnessing during recess, Jewish students being loaded into trucks by Gardists and German soldiers; watching members of Jewish families being taken away; her memory of people being forced out of their homes as a Gardist soldier threatened that Lutherans were the next to be deported; and her memory of restrictions placed on Jewish patrons of her family’s farm.

Oral history interview with Juraj Sirotský

Oral History

Juraj Sirotsky, born in 1937 in Vlaca, Slovakia, discusses witnessing as a young boy the deportation of the only local Jewish family; the behavior of the family as they were taken to the train station en route to Hanusovce; hearing a rumor that the deported family’s father requested the driver to sing songs; and his memories of the family’s property being taken over by members of the Hlinka Guard.

Oral history interview with Michal Štofan

Oral History

Michal Štofan, born in 1926 in Bystre, Slovakia, discusses local Jewish families and his Jewish classmates who lived in his town before the war; anti-Jewish laws; the confiscation of Jewish-owned businesses; hearing announcements for Jews to gather in a single location; seeing groups of Jews being deported; his father taking over a Jewish store; quitting school and working with his father; poorer people moving into houses that were previously owned by Jews; seeing personal belongings for sale outside homes; the return and actions of survivors after the war; his views on why priests did not want to help protect the Jewish population; and the names of individuals who helped Jews escape.

Oral history interview with Anna Štofanová

Oral History

Anna Stofanova, born in 1932 in Bystre, Slovakia, discusses witnessing as a young girl the arrest of an elderly Jewish woman; the woman’s admonishment to onlookers that they would be next; the arrest and deportation of the 10 Jewish families in her town; her memories of a Jewish boy at school; and the reunion of acquaintances in the town 20 years after the war.

Oral history interview with Andrej Balog

Oral History

Andrej Balog, born July 5, 1937 in Petrovce, Slovakia, discusses the peaceful relationship between a large Jewish family and their non-Jewish neighbors in his village; the lack of discrimination between Jews and non-Jews before the war; watching the deportation of the Jewish family by members of the Hlinka Guard in 1942; the selling of the family’s personal belongings; the opening of a school in the Jewish family’s house; hearing about one of the son’s from the family returning to Petrovce after the war; his memories of partisan activity; seeing hiding places for partisans and Jews from Hanusovce; a Hlinka Party membership card he found; his memories of partisans landing at an airport on August 20, 1944; and how a paratrooper got caught in a tree and had to be rescued.

Oral history interview with Mária Kalafová

Oral History

Maria Kalafova, born in 1934 in Hlinne, discusses the two Jewish families named Karpelova and Fiskovi who lived in her town before the war; Mrs. Karpelova who owned a store and small farm; her memory of gendarmes taking a basket of soaps to her grandfather and asking him to hide it; her grandfather’s resignation as Mayor in protest of the political situation; hearing that the Karpelova’s eldest son and daughter were deported followed by the rest of the family a year later; her memories of an auction of the Karpelova’s family personal belongings; and a song sung by workers at the railroad construction site.

Oral history interview with Ján Balog

Oral History

Jan Balog, born February 10, 1926 in Hlinne, Slovakia, discusses the deportation of Jews who lived in the Slovak State; seeing a family acquaintance Jakob Karpel and his sisters being taken away on a wagon; seeing Jews wearing yellow Star of David badges; his memories of Jakob Karpel and other Jews working on railroad construction; seeing Jakob Karpel’s younger brother Adolf planting trees in the forest for work; and bringing water to forced laborers at the railroad construction site.

Oral history interview with Aladár Vitkovič

Oral History

Aladár Vítkovič, born in 1933 in Hanušovce, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), describes the Jewish community of Hanušovce before the war; how some Jews went into hiding in 1942 after the passage of anti-Jewish laws and the beginning of deportations; the deportation of the Jews; the acquisition of empty Jewish homes by non-Jews following deportations; arrangements between Jews and their neighbors to take valuable items for safekeeping; the work of his father as a blacksmith at a railroad bridge construction; how as of 1944, all the Jews of Hanušovce were either deported or in hiding; and the aftermath of the war.

Oral history interview with Andrej Velebír

Oral History

Andrej Velebír, born in 1933 in Czechoslovakia, describes how in Hanušovce the Jewish population was well integrated into the town; positive relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish population; the introduction of anti-Jewish laws, including the wearing of Star of David badges; Jews giving their valuables to non-Jewish neighbors for protection; resistance actions of some Jews; the deportation of the Jews in 1942; the aryanization of Jewish shops; the confiscation and auction of Jewish property; the protection of some Jews by Gardists for a period of time; the building of a railway for the military by the town labor camp; an uprising by the Partisans against the Germans; how his father was against the violent actions; the evacuation of his family and their stay in the woods around Remeniny; and life in the aftermath of war.

Oral history interview with Anna Hanzová

Oral History

Anna Hanzova, born November 21, 1921 in Hanusovce, Slovakia, discusses her prewar friendships with neighboring Jews; the Friedman family whose son Aron was the same age as she; how she would light candles for them on Shabbat; the hiding of the Friedmans in a barn attic during deportations; bringing food to those in hiding; collecting birth certificates of Jews in hiding in 1942; lying to a clerk to get the documents; baking bread to give Jews hiding in the woods in bunkers; Gardists suspecting her of helping Jews; being warned of her arrest; helping a Jewish girl named Perla Neumanova go into hiding in Parchovany; her mother’s instance that they must help Jews; hearing about the Friedman family being taken to a labor camp in Novaky; hearing about three daughters who initially hid in a closet and then hid with a local family; the sisters’ relocation to Western Slovakia where they survived the war; witnessing a freight train packed with people being transported through Hanusovce in 1942; her mother giving food to labor camp prisoners; hearing about prisoners catching mice in the fields to eat; her contact with the Friedman family who immigrated to Israel after the war; and reunited with Perla Neumanova after the war.

Oral history interview with Oĺga Mokósová

Oral History

Oĺga Mokósová, born in 1930 in Nemčice, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), describes restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; Hlinka Guards in her hometown; the mass shooting of Jews from her hometown and surrounding areas by German soldiers; and the lack of punishment for a local collaborator after the war.

Oral history interview with Mária Ďuriančíková

Oral History

Mária Ďuriančíková, born in 1925 in Zvolen in Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Zvolen, including her Jewish classmates; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; local collaborators who participated in the aryanization of Jewish owned buisnesses; the Hlinka Guard; the conversion of many Jews to Catholicism; local Jews who went into hiding; deportations of Jews; her marriage in 1944; the postwar return of Jews to the area; and the punishment of Hlinka Guard members after the war.

Oral history interview with Želmíra Koronyová

Oral History

Želmíra Koronyová, born in 1923 in Králova Lehota, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), describes the prewar Jewish community of Slovenská Ľupča; the establishment of the Slovak state; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; the increasingly negative relations between Catholics and Lutherans and Jews; the aryanization of Jewish shops; the conversion of a Jewish family to the Lutheran church; the deportation of two Jewish families; the persecution of Lutherans by Catholics; aiding partisans during the Slovak National Uprising; and the immigration of local Jewish families to Israel after the war.

Oral history interview with Pavel Pavlišák

Oral History

Pavel Pavlišák, born in 1931 in Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Bardejov; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; anti-Jewish propaganda; witnessing members of the Hlinka Guard beating a Jewish man; watching deportations of the Jewish community; the aryanization of Jewish owned homes and auction of belongings; and few Jews returning to Bardejov after the war.

Oral history interview with Ladislav Demčko

Oral History

Ladislav Demčko, born in 1932 in Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Bardejov; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; the Hlinka Guards; an incident in which members of the Hitler Youth attacked a group of Jews; violent acts by local townspeople against members of the Jewish community; the deportation of local Jews by Hlinka Guards and Ukrainian soldiers; a local townsman who denounced Jews; the auctioning of Jewish owned property; and the return of some Jews after the war.

Oral history interview with Žofia Haňovová

Oral History

Žofia Haňovová, born in 1921 in Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Bardejov; the beginning of the war; the restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war, including the Aryanization of Jewish owned businesses; the treatment of Jews by members of the Hlinka Guard; her membership in the Hlinka Youth; hearing anti-Jewish propaganda on the radio; a group of Hitler Youth stationed in her hometown; incidents in which Jews converted to Christianity and survived the war; witnessing deportations of local Jews, including her Jewish friend; her father's work as a policeman; how he allowed some Jews to escape the transport; local Jewish families who went into hiding; the auctioning of Jewish owned belongings; the liberation of Bardejov in 1945; and the return of Jews who survived the Holocaust.

Oral history interview with Helena Belunková

Oral History

Helena Belunková, born in 1920 in Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Raslavice; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; local members of the Hlinka Guard; her marriage in 1942; the persecution of Jews, Czechs, and Roma by the Hlinka Guard; witnessing the deportation of the Jewish population; Hlinka Guard members searching for Jews in hiding; local Jews who went into hiding; the auctioning of Jewish owned property, which was purchased by local townspeople; and the conversion of some Jews to Christianity during the war.

Oral history interview with František Onofrej

Oral History

František Onofrej, born in 1933 in Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Prešov; restrictions placed on the Jewish community during the war; the Aryanization of Jewish businesses; the harassment of Jewish children by non-Jewish children; a Jewish couple living with his family in 1941 until their deportation in 1944; damage to the local synagogue caused by Hlinka Guard members in 1943; deportations of Jews; transports of Jews going to Poland passing through his hometown; the auction of Jewish owned belongings to local townspeople; a raid in 1944 to catch communists; the return of some Jews after the war; and the punishment of one Hlinka Guard member after the war.

Oral history interview with Ján Čorba

Oral History

Ján Čorba, born in 1927 in Michalovce, Slovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Michalovce; the establishment of the Slovak State in 1939; restrictions placed on the Jewish community during the war, including the Aryanization of Jewish owned businesses; problems encountered by his family because of their good relations with Jews; the conversion of some Jews to Christianity; the organization of transports to Auschwitz in 1942; visiting a detention camp in Čemerné in 1942; the actions of the Hlinka Guard members; the auction of Jewish owned belongings; and his knowledge of Jews who joined partisan units and survived the war.

Oral history interview with Alžbeta Vargová

Oral History

Alžbeta Vargová, born in 1929 in Czechoslovakia, describes the prewar Jewish community of Sered'; her father's work in the local cemetery; the establishment of a Hlinka Guard branch in Sered' in 1942; the establishment of a concentration camp in 1942; threats received by her father for his refusal to join the Hlinka Guard; the denouncement of local Jews to German forces by Hlinka Guard members; deportations of Jews; the looting of Jewish owned belongings by Hlinka Guard members; her father work to bury victims from the local labor camp; an incident in which her brother allowed a Jewish prisoner to escape; German soldiers and Hlinka Guards searching her home for hidden people; recording a list of graves in the cemetery to document who was buried in which grave; the Slovak National Uprising in 1944; a Jewish couple who survived a death camp; the postwar punishment of the local Hlinka Guard commander; and the return of two Jewish men after the war.

Oral history interview with Emília Kernová

Oral History

Emília Kernová, born in 1926 in Pezinok, Czechoslovakia (present day Slovakia), describes the persecution of her father because of his membership in Milan Rastislav Štefánik's legion during the World War I; her family's move to Modra in 1938; living with a family in Trnava who took patronage over her; her adopted family aiding Jews during the war; aiding in the transportation of Jewish children into hiding in 1941; her mother caring for an elderly Jewish woman; partisans hiding in the orphanage; the burning of a dormitory which led to the death of many children; bringing food to a Jewish family in hiding; the deportation of the Jews; and her relationships with the Jewish community after the war.

Oral history interview with Jozef Kardoš

Oral History

Jozef Kardoš, born in 1936 in Rajec, Czechoslovakia (present day Slovakia), describes the prewar Jewish community of Rajec; the confiscation of radios; the cruel actions of German soldiers; the deportation of local Jews; the looting of Jewish owned homes by Hlinka Guard members; anti-Jewish propaganda; and the punishment of Hlkina Guard members after the war.

Oral history interview with Emanuel Šmídl

Oral History

Emanuel Šmídl, born in 1912 in Nový Knín, Czechoslovakia (present day Czech Republic), describes living in Sabinov; the prewar Jewish community of Sabinov; the restrictions placed on the Jewish community during the war; the aryanization of Jewish-owned businesses; the treatment of Jews by Hlinka Guard members; a Jewish woman in hiding who was caught by German soldiers; the deportation of the Jewish community; German soldiers shooting people attempting to escape to Hungary; and his participation in the resistance movement.

Oral history interview with Cecília Sigotská

Oral History

Cecília Sigotská, born in 1925 in Šenkvice, Czechoslovakia (modern day Slovakia), describes attending school in Bratislava; witnessing the deportation of Jews from Bratislava; local townspeople who made money searching and finding people in hiding; the arrival of the front in Bratislava; and helping a Jewish woman hide during the war.

Oral history interview with Helena Faltínová

Oral History

Helena Faltínová, born in 1926 in Spišská Sobota, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), describes growing up in Košice; the prewar Jewish community of Košice; local Hungarians searching for communists and denouncing townspeople; witnessing a deportation of local Jews; conditions for Jews during the war; witnessing a hanging of communists, Jews, and partisans by German soldiers and Nyilasi; the treatment of local townspeople by Nyilasi members; local townspeople attempting to help Jews; a Jewish ghetto in Kosice; and her Jewish boss who survived a concentration camp.

Oral history interview with Alžbeta Buksárová

Oral History

Alžbeta Buksárová, born in 1933 in Pol'ana, Czechoslovakia (Vel'ká Pol'ana, Slovakia), describes a Jewish friend; her hometown becoming a part of Hungary in 1939; the deportation of her Jewish friends and the looting of their apartment by local guards; bringing milk to her Jewish friends; local Jews going into hiding; the arrest and imprisonment of her father and uncles by Russian forces; and her family's relocation to Slovakia.

Oral history interview with Mária Hriciková

Oral History

Mária Hriciková, born in 1922 in Rokytov, Czechoslovakia (present day Slovakia), describes the prewar Jewish community of Rokytov; witnessing the deportation of the Jewish community; local townspeople moving into emptied Jewish-owned homes; the looting of Jewish-owned belongings; and the return of two Jewish women to her hometown after the war.

Oral history interview with Anna Flešárová

Oral History

Anna Flešárová, born in 1932 in Košice, Czechoslovakia (present day Slovakia), describes the prewar Jewish community of Košice, including her Jewish neighbors; the arrival of Hungarian forces; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; the cruel treatment of Jews by Nyilas members; and the deportation of local Jews in 1944.

Oral history interview with Rafael Szabó

Oral History

Rafael Szabó, born in 1923 in Smolník, Czechoslovakia (present day Slovakia), describes the prewar Jewish community of his hometown and the nationalities of other residents; his Jewish neighbors; a Jewish man who helped his father; local townspeople terrorizing the Jewish community; anti-Jewish propaganda; the anti-fascist leanings of his parents; Hlinka Guard members; the Aryanization of Jewish owned businesses; Jews going into hiding; the deportation of local Jews by Hlinka Guard members and German soldiers in 1942; the looting of Jewish owned property; joining the Hlinka party to secure work; a Jewish man who returned to Smolník after the war; and books that he wrote about his youth and life during World War II.

Oral history interview with Elemír Hudy

Oral History

Elemír Hudy, born in 1927 in Košice, Czechoslovakia (present day Slovakia), describes befriending a German soldier who disliked Hitler; hearing of atrocities committed by Germans on Jews; the arrest and imprisonment of Jews in a local brickyard; the deportation of the Jews; his arrest by Hungarian soldiers and deportation to Neuhammer to work in 1943; the arrest of his family members; his escape to Vienna and imprisonment there; his uncle's labor in Dachau; and the persecution of Romani peoples.

Oral history interview with Marta Derfényiová

Oral History

Marta Derfényiová, born in 1927 in Lipany, Slovakia, describes the Jews in the village she grw up in; the synagogue; the Jews she knew, including Anita Vincerová (possibly spelled Wintzerová), Fany Feldmanová, and Dr. Kop (the local Jewish physician); her mother dewing for some Jewish families; the good relations between the Jews and non-Jews; a refugee family from Germany arriving in Lipany in 1933; the deportation of girls and young women in 1942 and not knowing where they were being taken; Jews having to wear identifying badges; the segregation of her school; the aryanization of Jewish businesses; the deportation of the remaining Jews in 1944, which was assisted by non-local Hlinka Guards; witnessing the Hlinka Guards chase after Jewish youths who were trying to escape the deportation; seeing two local rabbis in 1944 without their beards and side locks and hardly recognizing them; seeing transports from Hungary pass through Lipjany in 1944; hearing about the looting of Jewish homes; and the few Jews who returned after the war, including two girls from the Mandel family and Mr. Reich (who had a timber wood warehouse).

Oral history interview with František Malík

Oral History

František Malík, born in 1926 in Šarišské Sokolovce, Slovakia, describes the one Jewish family that lived in the village: Mrs. Hana Valdová (alternative spelling, Valdmanová) who was a widow and who lived with her daughter and sister and owned a grocery store; attending his junior high school in Sabinov, Slovakia beginning in 1939; his three Jewish classmates, Rimmer, Schwarz, and Klein, and their parents’ occupations (Rimmer had a modern mill; Schwarz traded in animal skins and furs; and Klein was a butcher and the family was originally from Šarišské Michaľany); the antisemitism exhibited by his schoolmates; his memories of anti-Jewish propaganda, including antisemitic songs that were popular; seeing Hlinka Guards walk the streets in Sabinov and their role in the aryanization of Jewish businesses after the deportations of Jews; Jews having to wear stars in Sabinov, but not Šarišské Sokolovce; seeing Jews being brought to an elementary school yard in Sabinov by a truck; the public auction of Mrs. Hana Valdová’s property after she and her family were deported; and his memories of the resettling of local Romanies in 1939 after the Slovak state was established.

Oral history interview with Ján Malík

Oral History

Ján Malík, born in 1930 in Šarišské Sokolovce, Slovakia, describes attending an elementary school in his village when the deportations of Jews began; witnessing with a crowd of locals the deportation of the two local Jews (Mrs. Hana Valdová (alternative spelling, Valdmanová) and her sister); the earlier deportation of Mrs. Hana Valdová’s daughter, Gizela; the looting and auctioning of Mrs. Hana Valdová’s belongings after the deportation; anti-Jewish songs that were popular at that time; hearing about other deportations from Sabinov, Slovakia; and seeing transports from Hungary a few times in Sabinov.

Oral history interview with Jolana Mandzáková

Oral History

Jolana Mandzáková, born in 1931 in Veľké Kapušany, Slovakia, describes the Jews who lived in Veľké Kapušany; playing with Jewish children; the two Jewish physicians in town, including Dr. Sándor who returned with his wife after the war; her Jewish friend Klári Dratler, who survived a concentration camp and returned for a while until she moved to Bohemia; the other Dratler children, including Ernö, Zoli, and Sári; not perceiving any significant differences between the Jews and non-Jews as a child; never hearing about the blood libel story; changes during the Hungarian occupation; the antisemitism exhibited by one of her teachers; the aryanization of Jewish businesses; seeing the deportation of the Jews; the looting of Jewish homes; the few Jews who returned and got their houses back, including Mr. Friedman and Mr. Spígel; and the looting of homes by Russian soldiers.

Oral history interview with Vlasta Poláková

Oral History

Vlasta Poláková, born on January 21, 1926 in Košice, Slovakia, describes her experiences in Žilina, Slovakia during WWII; talking to some Jewish women in Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia in 1938 who were being sent to Germany to work in recreational facilities; moving to Ostrava, Slovakia with her family when the Hungarians took over Košice; moving to Žilina; hiding three Jewish families in the cellar of their house in Rajec, Slovakia (circa 1944); seeing Jews being forced to do labor in the streets of Žilina; watching the deportation of Jews by train from Žilina; seeing a mass grave; the curfew; Jews having to wear yellow stars; the detainment of Jews by Hlinka Guards; and the Hlinka Guard conventions every three months and the songs they sang.

Oral history interview with Margita Michalčíková

Oral History

Margita Michalčíková, born in 1934 in Hrčel, Slovakia, describes growing up in Hrčel; her five siblings; playing with the three children of their Jewish neighbors, the Höfnigovo (Höfnig) family; the synagogue the Jews in Hrčel attended in Novosad; the good relations between the Jews and non-Jews in their village; Jews having to wear yellow stars; the Hungarian occupation; the deportation circa 1943 of the Jews on a horse-driven wagon and led by Hungarian gendarmes; saying goodbye to her Jewish friends before they were deported; the looting of Jewish homes; and the arrival of Russian soldiers in December 1944.

Oral history interview with Ján Bajus

Oral History

Ján Bajus, born in 1926 in Dargov, Slovakia, describes his first encounter with Jews when he worked at a sawmill in Sečovce, Slovakia; the owner of the sawmill, Mr. Friedman, who was Jewis; the aryanization of the mill by two brothers by the name of Antal and the closing of the business soon after; working for Mr. Mandel in Michalovce who was also Jewish and in the timber business; going with Mr. Mandel to the bank because Jews at the time were not permitted to withdraw and deposit money; saying goodbye to Mr. Mandel before he was deported; seeing the deportation of Mr. Friedman along with other Jews from Sečovce, including numerous Jewish business owners; his Jewish friend, Mr. Šamo, who was a miller; some of the Hlinka Guards who were tried after the war; and the looting of Jewish homes after the deportations.

Oral history interview with Pavol Bruňo

Oral History

Pavol Bruňo, born in 1929 in Močarany (now part of Michalovce), Slovakia, describes the Jews living in the village when he was a child, including Mr. Icko (a travelling salesman), Mr. Berko, and Mr. Grossman (a travelling salesman); attending school with Jewish classmates; the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; occasionally starting the hearth fire for Jews on Saturday; the Hlinka Guards; seeing the Jews being taken away by train and going to say goodbye to them at the station; witnessing a Jewish woman being hit with a rifle by a Hlinka Guard; teachers from his school who were in the Hlinka Guards; the Hlinka Guards’ song; and none of the Jews returning after the war except one man (named Mr. Grossman) who survived in hiding.

Oral history interview with Mária Tomková

Oral History

Mária Tomková, born in 1933 in Hraň, Slovakia, describes living in Hraň until she was 19 years old; attending a Hungarian school in Hraň while it was occupied by the Hungarians; having one Jewish classmate, Edita Grossmannová; the other Jews in Hraň; the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; some Jews fleeing before the deportations occurred; the roundup of the Jews (approximately 15 people) in the center of the village, behind the church; local authorities taking over the Jewish houses after the deportation; and the return of one of the Jewish girls, who told the village about her experiences in concentration camps and eventually immigrated to Canada.

Oral history interview with Ján Kušnír

Oral History

Ján Kušnír, born in 1930 in Sečovce, Slovakia, describes life before the war; the good relations between Christians, Jews, and Romanies; the establishment of the Slovak state and many Czechs moving out of Sečovce; his memories of anti-Jewish sentiment beginning when it was rumored that the Jews were going to be segregated and deported; many Jews trying to flee before the deportation; his mother working as a maid for a Jewish family, the Hecht family (two of the grown children from the family managed to immigrate to the United States before the deportation); witnessing the roundups and deportations which involved the Hlinka Guards and local police; hearing about a labor camp in Čemerné, Slovakia; the aryanization of Jewish businesses before the deportations; the public auctions of Jewish property; hearing about Jews in hiding, including the Kleins who survived the war in hiding; not knowing anyone from Sečovce who came back from a death camp; and the Hlinka Youth (Hlinkova mládež) established in his school and which everyone had to join.

Oral history interview with Agnesa Baďurová

Oral History

Agnesa Baďurová, born in 1923 in Považský Chlmec, a neighborhood in the city of Žilina, Slovakia, describes going to a vocational school and to an apprenticeship in Žilina; living on Bratislavská street in Žilina; the new Slovak political regime not being a bad time for her family because they had a small farm with three cows and her father worked for a railway company and they could travel with free tickets; how her Jewish classmates in middle school stopped coming to school one day; seeing Jewish people being taken to a railway station; a shooting range in Považský Chlmec where she saw people being shot; sales of Jewish possessions such as clothes, which she wouldn’t touch because of concern about skin disease; people being chased like cattle from a Maccabi building down the roads and having to walk in rows of four to the train tracks to be loaded onto a train; seeing many shootings at the shooting range; after the war, someone came to ask about her experiences and being too afraid to talk because of her fears of being denounced.

Oral history interview with Terezia Zvrškovcová

Oral History

Terezia Zvrškovcová, born in 1930 in Žilina, Slovakia, describes Žilina as a growing city; her family having eight children; a German company Slovena opening a factory there for soldier uniform material; her mother being from Moravia, Czechoslovakia, and her father being from Žilina; having Jewish classmates in a state secular elementary school and middle school; Jewish girls getting baptized to try to save themselves, converting to Christianity and going to church; deportations starting in 1942; her family having cows and she would take milk to town to sell to Jewish people at their homes; Jewish classmates having to wear badges in the form of yellow stars at school, even after they were baptized; synagogues being closed; how there were no Jewish people left in the town before the end of the war; Czech people suddenly having to move out of Slovakia; nuns hiding Jewish families in catacombs under a monastery; six of her friends being shot and buried in a mass grave; her mother becoming scared when finding out the SS were looking for her nephew Vlado and running from her house to her nephew’s house and shouting at him to run, and the SS grabbing her mother and asking where her nephew was; the nephew running to the mountains and hiding for the rest of the war; her mother not being shot; a man who worked at University of Žilina and had a father who would sit with SS soldiers, who were said to be harming people; the University man sitting with soldiers at a table in a pub and a German accusing the man of stealing his gun, so they took the man out of the pub and shot him; feeling sorry for Jewish people for their horrible humiliation and their shops being taken; Anton Sedláček, who fought for liberation of Czechoslovakia, being hanged in 1944 in a park in Žilina and his body left hanging there for a day, and the park later being named after him.

Oral history interview with Martin Bálik

Oral History

Martin Bálik, born in 1929 in the village of Sása in the Zvolen District in the Banská Bystrica Region in central Slovakia, describes growing up in a Catholic family next to a Jewish couple who owned a pub; the Jewish couple’s baptized and converted grandson with whom Martin was friends; attending a Catholic school in Sása with a teacher who was a brother of Slovak theater director Karol L. Zachar; attending a middle school in the nearby village of Pliešovce and having Slovak composer Pavol Čády as a teacher; his father being a barber and a vice mayor of the village, and since Germans couldn’t negotiate with the mayor, who pretended to be ill, the Germans came to their house and his father sometimes cut the Germans’ hair; the Jewish couple next door being moved out of their pub to a room in the post office then taken away somewhere; Jews being shot, executed, and buried in the village of Kováčová near Zvolen, where he saw the graves in a large field.

Oral history interview with Anna Sokolová

Oral History

Anna Sokolová (née Majerčíková), born in 1921 in the village of Necpaly in the Žilina Region of Slovakia, describes growing up in a religious family of Lutherans in an evangelical village; having a Catholic family as neighbors; a Jewish woman Mrs. Grunwald, who owned a general store in the village and a small farm with horses and had a servant; Mrs. Grunwald’s husband being found dead with bricks under his head; the Jewish woman cooking food for sick people; guards taking her away in a cart; Mrs. Grunwald’s property and carpets and paintings being taken by Hlinka Guard members and sold to the villagers; Germans thinking that partisans were hiding in fields, and subsequently burning three fields; 11 people being killed at a Catholic parish; women having to make coffins for the dead; and people hiding all over Necpaly.

Oral history interview with Veronika Františáková

Oral History

Veronika Františáková, born in 1924 in the village of Breznica in the Stropkov District in the Prešov Region of Slovakia, describes her parents dying when she was seven years old; moving in with her sister in the village of Mestisko in the Svidník District when she was 10 years old; having Jewish neighbors in Mestisko, including a family that owned a shop and had three daughters who later were taken away; moving from Mestisko to the town of Svidník to live with a teacher and work as a nanny for the teacher’s children in 1942 and 1943; Jewish families being taken from surrounding villages and brought to Svidník on farm carts to live temporarily in school classrooms before being taken away; three Jewish millers trying to pay the school headmaster to prevent Jews from being taken to concentration camps; moving to Prešov in Eastern Slovakia in 1943; after the war, coming across one of the school guards in a pub in the village of Terchová, and the guard seeing her and leaving right away; bombings in Prešov in 1944 when Russians were chasing away Germans; and being evacuated to Poprad in 1945.

Oral history interview with Olga Frátriková

Oral History

Olga Frátriková, born in 1930 in the village of Hôrky in Žilina District in northern Slovakia, describes Jewish people hiding nearby from Germans; people bringing milk from farms to Jewish homes in the nearby village of Závodie (now part of Žilina) and in Žilina; her school’s headmaster being a brother of Jozef Gašpar Tiso (Tiso was a Roman Catholic priest and was a Nazi collaborator as president of Slovakia during World War II); some people being envious of Jews because they were seen as wealthier; walking five kilometers to school and going past a gated military barracks and a former riding hall where Jewish citizens were housed; seeing guards from the barracks in dark uniforms who collected Jewish families; children being separated from their parents at the barracks gate and taken to Auschwitz; seeing Jewish people brought in on cattle trains and dead people being left in the train cars; and seeing guards taking families from apartment buildings in Žilina.

Oral history interview with Ján Smarža

Oral History

Ján Smarža, born in 1927 in the village of Výrava in Medzilaborce District, Slovakia, describes his family being Ruthenian and the village’s main religion being Greek Catholic; the several Jewish community members, including a store owner who had a large multifamily house; the rise of the Slovak State in 1939 leading to laws requiring Jewish people to wear yellow stars and separating Jews from other people; how the Ruthenians were not acting as guards because Ruthenians were not Slovak; hearing Hlinka Guards shouting a slogan during a gathering in the nearby town of Medzilaborce when President Jozef Gašpar Tiso was visiting during summer holidays; his father taking him to Medzilaborce to see Tiso (Tiso was a Nazi collaborator while president of Slovakia during World War II); attending middle school in Medzilaborce and seeing guards taking a Jewish family out of their home and to a rail station to put them on train cars; furniture in Jewish families’ homes getting sold off at auctions, and his parents buying a table and two stools that had belonged to the Jewish store owner; handmaking socks and gloves for Germans at the war front; and one of his Jewish classmates from first grade surviving Auschwitz and returning to Výrava to find her home was gone.

Oral history interview with Štefan Lach

Oral History

Štefan Lach, born in 1929 in Poprad, Slovakia, describes having four siblings; his father who was a taxi driver; not being able to attend an art school in Bratislava, Slovakia, because his father had been labeled a collaborator; his father joining an international underground anti-Nazi movement in 1939 that went through Poland, Hungary, France, and London, smuggling Polish citizens to join Polish legions and to train in France then move to Britain to join air forces; helping his father smuggle people; transporting Polish people across the Tatra Mountains through the Slovak village of Osturňa or to the Tri Studničky mountain chalet in Podbanské; smuggling people from Štrbské Pleso in the Tatras, Slovakia, to the village of Gemerská Poloma near the Hungarian border and then to Hungary; couriers bringing groups of three to four people to their home for transport; Gestapo police coming to their home every day; hiding a Jewish doctor in a cellar under their garage so the doctor wouldn’t be transported to Auschwitz; hiding a deserting German soldier in a box of sawdust, and learning that when the soldier tried to go home to Germany he stopped a car of German soldiers and the soldiers didn’t know him, so they took him five-hundred meters away and shot him; having a middle-school teacher who was commander of the Hlinka Guard women and forced all students to join Hlinka youth; Slovak nationalist politician Alexander Šaňo Mach visiting Poprad in 1943, at which time his teacher made students waive to him (Mach supported Nazis and Germany); and all Jewish people having to wear an identifying Jewish star.

Oral history interview with Magdaléna Pribylincová

Oral History

Magdaléna Pribylincová, born in 1924 in the village of Hrabovec nad Laborcom in the Prešov Region of Slovakia, describes attending middle school in the city of Prešov and having Jewish classmates and a Jewish friend; her family being accused of hiding a Jewish man, and Germans coming to their house to look for him; SS troops burning down the nearby village of Zlatá Baňa; a large bombing in 1945, and her family hiding in the cellar of a pub with other groups of people; Russian soldiers ordering her mother to bake cakes all night; and hearing a radio announcement in Poprad, Slovakia, that said women raped by Russian soldiers could go to the hospital and get an abortion.

Oral history interview with Anna Šeptáková

Oral History

Anna Šeptáková, born in 1928 in the village of Veľká in Poprad, Slovakia, describes a Jewish neighbor, who owned a grocery store, being taken away in a truck and people saying goodbye to her; the woman asking what she had done and why the guards were taking her away; children staring at what was happening; having a Jewish classmate in elementary school who disappeared, and the classmate being an orphan who lived with two sisters; another classmate telling the Jewish classmate that Jews crucified Christ; her grandfather who lived in the village of Šuňava in the Poprad District receiving help from a Jewish man to build a house and set up a business in the house; having to learn German at school in the town of Spišská Sobota in Poprad; having a neighbor who was a Hlinka Guard, but who also hid two young people who could have been killed by the Germans; and Russians living in her home after the war.

Oral history interview with Gejza Krupa

Oral History

Gejza Krupa, born in 1933 in Spišská Teplica, Slovakia, describes being beaten badly by his parents for refusing to become a butcher; running away when he was 15 to live with his aunt in Krompachy, Slovakia (circa 1948); being recruited at school to join the Hlinka Guard but not being interested; seeing Jewish children, women, and shopkeepers wearing yellow stars; going with his stepmother and father to Veľká, Slovakia and seeing furniture on the sidewalks and in courtyards that had been taken from Jewish homes, with guards keeping the valuable items; seeing approximately 500 people on train carts, wearing yellow stars; a Jewish grocery shopkeeper changing his name and converting to Christianity; Hlinka Guards killing a Romani; and Germans building a slaughterhouse near a stream and killing a pregnant cow.

Oral history interview with Anna Benická

Oral History

Anna Benická, born in 1924 in the village of Banská Belá, Slovakia, describes her two older sisters being sent to Trnava in western Slovakia to be raised by nuns, and she later joined them for seven years before moving back to Banská Belá; many Jewish people living in a nearby town of Banská Štiavnica; the deportations of Jews to Stará Kremnička beginning in 1939; once having a Jewish classmate whose father was a butcher in Banská Štiavnica; virtually all students in schools in Banská Štiavnica being members of the Hlinka Youth; teachers organizing the Hlinka Youth; she and her four siblings not joining those organizations; people in Trnava who hated Jews; working at a research institute in the Trenčianske Teplice spa town in Slovakia; seeing Germans taking away a Jewish doctor and dragging him to a truck full of people; a soldier who saw her crying pointing his gun at her; and seeing Hitlerjugend in uniforms every morning marching, drumming, and singing.

Oral history interview with Anna Alžbeta Gulovichová

Oral History

Anna Alžbeta Gulovichová, born in 1928 in the village of Jakubany in Stará Ľubovňa District in northern Slovakia, describes her father being a Greek Catholic priest and village beacon; living in the village until 1948; going to secondary school in Stará Ľubovňa, then to a pedagogical institute in Prešov, eastern Slovakia; Jakubany being home to about five Jewish families, all of whom owned shops; having five siblings; she and her siblings being friends with Jewish children in the village and studying together in a garden; a teacher kicking her out of extra activities because she wasn’t in Hlinka Youth; after the Slovak state was established, children had to pray before and after classes; all Jewish people in Jakubany having to wear five-pointed yellow stars on their sleeves; teachers and police officers in Ruthenian villages not feeling like they could comment on the political situation; Jewish people coming from Sabinov, Liptovský Mikuláš, and Bratislava to hide in the mountains surrounding Jakubany; soldiers arriving in trucks early in the morning then going to the mountains and bringing back Jewish people on the trucks, then burning down wooden huts where the Jewish people were hiding; German Gestapo soldiers and officers sometimes coming to her village two to three times a week; Germans shooting several partisans in the village at night and her father burying them, against the wishes of the Germans.

Oral history interview with Eva Skokňová

Oral History

Eva Skokňová, born in 1929 in the town of Levice in western Slovakia, describes going to school in the town of Nové Zámky; her mother getting divorced after her father lost his job; having to travel for several surgeries as a child but being able to stay with her grandmothers; Hitler’s policies becoming popular and her father losing his job (he managed farm workers after the farm’s owners fled); being an evangelical and going to a Catholic school with Jewish girls who became her friends; Czechoslovakia splitting up and Czech teachers and state clerks having to leave and being replaced by Hungarians; Nové Zámky and Levice being annexed by Hungary and having to speak Hungarian; her parents telling her that Jewish people had to wear yellow stars because of the Germans; SS troopers looking down on people and treating them with disrespect; Miklós Horthy, the conservative head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary during most of World War II, coming to a parade in Nové Zámky on a white horse with Hungarian elite; a young Catholic boy and a Jewish girl falling in love and then committing suicide when Jews had to start wearing yellow stars; people crying at a funeral for the boy, who was not buried with the girl; and seeing Jewish men, women, and children walking in rows to a train station near her home with small bags and crying.

Oral history interview with Július Perger

Oral History

Július Perger, born in 1923 in the neighborhood of Kružlovská Huta in Kružlov, Slovakia, describes the neighborhood as being mostly Roman Catholic with one Jewish family, who were poor; a glassblowing business in the area going bankrupt in the early 1930s; having Jewish classmates in middle school in the nearby town of Bardejov; the establishment of the Slovak state and being liberated from Hungary; his mother previously working as a maid in Hungary; taking a train home from Prešov in 1942 and stopping in the Slovakian village of Raslavice and seeing another train with Jews locked inside cattle cars, with a lot of people and children crying; Jews on the train saying they were forcefully taken and had to leave everything behind; arriving home and his mother was crying because the Jewish family in Kružlovská Huta had been taken away; and later telling his daughters about what happened on that train.

Oral history interview with Helena Gerberyová

Oral History

Helena Gerberyová, born in 1930 in the village of Breznica, Stropkov District, in Slovakia, describes having Jewish neighbors while growing up and going to their home on Saturdays to light a fire for them because the Jewish family was poor; another Jewish family who owned a pub and a store in the village and gave goods to people who did not have money; Breznica having Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics; her father being Greek Catholic and her mother being Roman Catholic; her family giving milk and butter to their Jewish neighbors; many Jews living in the nearby town of Stropkov; the Slovak state taking away Jews in their village to the city of Vranov, including the Jews in Breznica; seeing men in uniforms taking their Jewish neighbors out of their home; and seeing guards walking around Stropkov.

Oral history interview with Anna Čokinová

Oral History

Anna Čokinová, born in 1927 in the village of Ulič in the Prešov Region of northeastern Slovakia, describes several Jewish families living in Ulič; one Jewish family owning a small general store and another Jewish family owning a bakery; one of the Jewish families having a horse-trading business; a Jewish lady who would come to their neighborhood to buy chicken and would chat with her mother; the lady once telling her mother that Jewish people were expecting to be taken away, but they deserved it; Hungarian soldiers coming to their village on horses to guard the Slovakian border; dancing with the soldiers at parties; a drummer announcing Jewish people would be taken; soldiers guarding Jews’ homes and not letting other people in; Jews being taken away; the property of the Jews, including furniture, sewing machines, cows, and land, being sold at auction; her father buying one of the cows; a married Jewish couple returning to Ulič after the war for a couple days, but Ukrainian nationalists part of the Banderivtsi going to their home and shooting them; hearing that five Jewish women were killed in the Kolbasov village in Slovakia, but two girls hid under a duvet and survived; and Russian soldiers coming to her village.

Oral history interview with Anton Palka

Oral History

Anton Palka, born in 1928 in Kuchyňa in the Bratislava Region of western Slovakia, near the town of Malacky, describes his village having about seven Jewish families, both rich and poor; the Jewish families as working in agriculture or farming, or having businesses; one Jewish family having a general store and a nice daughter, and his memories of them being deported; another Jewish family having a textile shop and two sons; people at their neighbor’s house listening to Radio London, which was illegal at the time; the establishment of the Slovak state, leading some families to not speak with other people; in 1938, being asked along with other children to march through the village and sing Hlinka Youth songs they learned from their teacher; having Hlinka Guards in the village, with one guard confiscating Jewish property and once ordering marching youths to shout "Jews and Czechs, out!” at a Jewish family sitting outside a Jewish church; his parents being left wing and not allowing their children to join Hlinka Youth; seeing armed guards leading a Jewish family to a railway station to be deported; Hitler-Jugend coming to their village and playing a German song in front of the municipal office, and German locals joining them; and after the war, the new Czechoslovak authorities taking Hlinka Guard members to the large Red Bridge near Bratislava to make them clean the red bricks.

Oral history interview with Vlasta Gaceková

Oral History

Vlasta Gaceková, born in 1929 in the town of Dolný Kubín in northern Slovakia, describes Jewish people living in her town, including a family who owned a grocery store; having Jewish classmates; her school forcing students to become members of Hlinka Youth; Jewish people having to wear stars; guards loading her Jewish friend on a truck and taking her to Poland; and her whole family being in the resistance movement.

Oral history interview with Emília Muchová

Oral History

Emília Muchová, born in 1927 in Mokraď, near the town of Dolný Kubín in Slovakia, describes growing up in the village of Istebné; having Jewish boys as classmates in middle school; Hlinka guards in black uniforms walking around Dolný Kubín and shoving Jews in the street; antisemitic signs in chalk on Jewish shops; Jewish classmates wearing stars; armed guards loading Jews onto train cattle cars; not letting a Russian solder kiss her and being warned he was coming to get her.

Oral history interview with Štefánia Šusteková

Oral History

Štefánia Šusteková, born in 1930 in the village of Ostrov near the town of Piešťany in Slovakia, describes German soldiers being stationed in her school when she was in fourth grade; having a Jewish classmate from Piešťany who acted withdrawn and said they were going to be taken; agreeing with students to go to the train station to say goodbye to her; watching a cargo train coming from the town of Vrbové, full of people; a guard threatening to kill them if they didn’t go away while they watched the train pass; guards loading Jewish people from trucks onto the train, and seeing their Jewish classmate in a train window; her parents telling them not to be friends with Jewish children; a German officer staying at her place for about a year until Russians came; Russian soldiers staying with them and having a Katyusha multiple rocket launcher in their yard.

Oral history interview with Michal Patrik

Oral History

Michal Patrik, born in 1926 in the village of Čertižné, Medzilaborce District in Slovakia, describes hearing on the radio that Slovakia would be a country without Jews; guards taking Jews to concentration camps; having a girlfriend who was a Jew and hiding her at his home; a guard looking for his girlfriend and saying they would take him away if he didn’t hand her over; calling his girlfriend out, and the guards taking her to Poland.