Filip Hecht

This is a photograph of my grandfather. The photo is from the 1920s. My grandparents were from Slovakia. My father's parents lived in Svrbice [a town in the Topolcany region - Editor's note], I don't precisely know if it was the Hlohovec or the Topolcany region. My paternal grandfather was named Filip Hecht, and my grandmother was named Janka, née Weiss. I don't remember my grandparents, all I know about them is what my father told me. In Svrbice my grandfather had a smaller farm, a store and a pub. In the store he sold sugar, salt and flour, a typical village shop, and he also had a pub. He and his wife served people in the store and pub. He also had a helper from the village. They were open every day. In the pub they sold mostly brandy. But later he sold his property and moved to Preselany [a town in the Topolcany region - Editor's note]. There he bought a farm, which then expanded. After some time he bought another farm, and also owned a distillery. My grandparents on my father's side had six children, three sons and three daughters. But the oldest son, Natan, died young, as he had a heart defect. My grandfather's two sons then remained on the farms. My uncle Henrich ran the farm in Preselany, and the farm in Vycapy fell to my father, Aladar. The farming estate was named Maly Chosen. Another thing I know about Grandpa Filip Hecht is that he was a very hard-working and frugal person. He lived with my father when he married my mother. He took care of the cows and milk. He was so frugal that he used to ration my parents' food. He didn't give them as much as they wanted. My mother used to tell me that Grandpa Hecht liked my brother [Pavol Hecht] very much, because he was his firstborn grandson. So they would always tell him to go ask for milk. In Preselany my grandfather concerned himself just with farming. He also owned a distillery, which he got from Count Aponyi, who ran up a debt with my grandfather, and he bought that distillery from him.