Stepan Neuman

Stepan Neuman
Uzhgorod
Ukraine
Interviewer: Ella Levitskaya
Date of interview: October 2003

Stepan Neuman is a man of average height and stout. He has thick, black hair with a touch of gray, black brows and bright young, dark eyes. He moves with a sportive ease. He looks young for his 80 years of age. Stepan speaks with a noted Hungarian accent. His wife Adel is a slim, beautiful blonde. She always has a sweet smile on her lips. The two of them live in the house built by Stepan’s father, Edvard Neuman, back in 1927. It’s a one-storied cottage, spacious and well-maintained. There is a big garden around the house and splendid rose bushes near the house. The furniture that they have in the house was shipped from Budapest by Stepan’s parents, when they moved to Uzhgorod, Stepan’s mother Eva’s home town, in 1924. There are many books in all the rooms. There is still Stepan’s father’s collection of books and of course, the books that their family has collected. The majority of the books are in Hungarian and Czech, and there are fewer books in Russian. Stepan is very much involved in the activities of the Jewish community of Uzhgorod, therefore, we met a few times to do the interview. Stepan is very much interested in the history of Jews and the history of his family, in particular. He is a very interesting conversation partner and an erudite person. I found our meetings very enjoyable.

My ancestors lived in the territory of Czechoslovakia that belonged to Austria-Hungary at that time. [Editor’s note: As a matter of fact Subcarpathia belonged to Czechoslovakia during the interwar period (1920-1939) only. Before this time the area was an integral part of Hungary within the Austro-Hungarian dual state since 1867 and the Kingdom of Hungary within the Habsburg Empire before that.] My grandfather, Ignacz Neuman, my father’s father, was born in the village of Belcice, near Benesov, in 1844. My grandfather must have had brothers and sisters, as there were usually many children in Jewish families, but I have no information about them.

My grandfather was a harness maker. Horses pulled street cars at that time and his profession was in great demand. Before he got married my grandfather moved to Budapest in Hungary. [Bohemia and Hungary were both parts of the same Austro-Hungarian state.] He opened a harness shop in the center of the city and became so popular that he was appointed the king’s harness maker. [Franz Joseph (1849-1916), Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.] He had a few employees working for him. They made harness and saddles for the king’s court. His shop also manufactured harness for the army. Only wealthier people kept saddle horses or carriages and they paid well for this kind of work.

My grandfather married Regina Rosenberg, born in 1857, a girl from a wealthy Jewish family. My grandfather bought a house in a central street of Budapest. They were wealthy. My grandmother had housemaids and their children had nannies and governesses.

As far as I can judge from the photographs of my grandmother that I saw in my childhood and that, regretfully, have not been kept, my father’s was a secular family. My grandmother wore fancy gowns and had nice hairdos made on her thick long dark hair. Judging from my father, his parents did not honor religion or Jewish traditions. At least, when I knew my father, he was a convinced atheist.

There were three children in the family. My father’s older brother Ferencz, or Ferko, as he was often called in the family, was born in 1877. The second child was my father Edvard, or Ede in short. It was indicated in my father’s birth certificate that he was born in 1881, on 10th June at 4 o’clock in the morning. The younger daughter Iren, called Anzi in the family, was born in 1886. My father’s older brother Ferencz fell ill with diphtheria in 1888 and died. Fortunately, the other two children did not get diphtheria.

In 1892 my grandfather died. My grandmother who had never worked before and had no idea what it was about to work, tried to manage the shop. This idea of hers must have failed since a short time later the employees of the shop became its owners. My grandmother, my father and his sister had nothing to live on. They were poor. My grandmother was desperate. The money she got from selling her jewelry did not last long.

My father was twelve years old then. My grandmother managed to make arrangements for my father to become an apprentice of a type setter in a printing house. The type setting process was manual: the words were set from lead letters to make sentences. My father told me that he was short and for him to be able to reach a box with lead letters they put a box so he could stand on it. Those lead letters were also too heavy for him, but he overcame all difficulties and had a profession by the age of 15.

At that time qualified professionals needed to have experience of work in other countries. The more countries he had worked in the more high-skilled a person was believed to be. My father left Budapest to work in Italy, France and Germany. When my father was working in a printing house in Leipzig, he began to attend evening classes in a college. Since my father composed books and magazines in German, he managed to learn it well. Even before he finished his studies, my father also did editing of books in German.

When my father finished his college the company in Berlin manufacturing linotypes, offered my father to write a manual on the use of linotype units making lead letters. My father wrote a manual in German and it was published. There were very good references for this manual. I have this book. My father did a great job. There is a big article about my father Edvard Neuman in the Polygraphist Encyclopedia.

My father always remembered his Jewish origin. His ancestors were Jews and he believed he could not offend them, but my father believed that in the Jewish religion and traditions there was a lot going back to middle ages. He disapproved of the way religious people dressed, same as many centuries before. Life was changing and fashion in clothing and views was to change as well.

My father supported the assimilation of Jews and thought that it was good for Jews to be no different from other people in the way they dressed and looked. Faith and convictions were one thing and beard and payes – a different story. Those were outer signs and it wasn’t worth to get too deep into them. He wore contemporary clothing and had his hair cut short. My father was elegant and knew how to wear clothes.

During World War I my father was recruited to the Hungarian army [1]. He was sent to the [Russian] front. He was a private and took part in combat action in the Carpathians. There, in the trenches, my father became an ardent pacifist. During intervals he wrote about the horrors of the war. He wrote about what he saw with his own eyes. My father sent his front line reports to newspapers and they published them. I still have a pen with which my father wrote his field reports. This was a fountain pen which was to be filled up with ink. My father brought a few reports home.

My father had an amazingly beautiful and distinct handwriting, very fine. There was little paper available at the front line, and my father tried to put as much text as possible on one page. I’ve always tried to imitate my father, even his handwriting, but I failed to do it. Other soldiers often asked my father to write letters home to let them know that their husband was alive and hoping to come back home soon.

My father was at the front line until 1916. Near the town of Stryy [540 km from Kiev] my father was wounded in his hand with shrapnel. He was sent to a hospital in Mukachevo. He had three fingers on his left hand amputated. After his release from the hospital he was demobilized due to his wound and returned to Budapest.

In Budapest my father became an editor of the social democratic newspaper ‘Nepszava.’ The newspaper propagated for new power without national segregation and suppression, a democratic state, kind relations between people and friendship of people. This was a revolutionary newspaper, one can say.

In 1917 the revolution [2] took place in Russia. The Hungarians who were in Russian captivity during World War I and stayed there during the Soviet regime learned the program of the Soviet regime and the Soviet ways. When they were allowed to leave Russia, they decided to follow the way of the Soviets: land to the peasants and plants to workers.

These slogans were inspiring people. Masses of common people supported the socialist regime and the socialist program. This was how democratic [communist] power came to Hungary [cf. Hungarian Soviet Republic] [3]. There were many Jews in the government. I think that in their majority Jews were disposed to internationalism rather than nationalism and chauvinism and many Jews supported this power.

When he worked for the newspaper, my father met the commissar of printing business of Budapest, Moricz Preusz. His Jewish name was Moisey. They were both the same age and both had been fighting in the war. This probably brought them together, and their acquaintance grew into friendship.

Moisey came from Uzhgorod. He told my father that his family was in Uzhgorod, and his younger sister Eva Preusz was single. Moisey invited Eva to Budapest where my father met her. They fell in love with each other and got married in 1919. They had a traditional Jewish wedding – the Preusz family was religious and observed Jewish traditions.

Uzhgorod was the center of Subcarpathia [4]. This was a small beautiful town on the banks of the Uzh River. There was a strong Jewish community in the town. There were Jews of different levels [streams] of religiosity – from Orthodox [5] and Hasidim [6] to Neologs [7]. They had synagogues, community buildings and cheders. There was a yeshivah, a higher religious educational institution. Jews lived in the center of Uzhgorod and the non-Jewish population lived in the suburbs.

Jews did well during all regimes. They were craftsmen: plumbers, tinsmiths and blacksmiths. Jews owned many shops. All tailors and barbers in the town were also Jews. They also owned almost all trade businesses. There were Jewish freight wagoners and passenger cabmen. They owned wagons, nice carriages and had fancy harness on their horses. There were rich Jews who owned factories, were doctors, lawyers and bakers.

The Jewish community took care of all poor Jews and there were no Jewish beggars in the town. All Jews, with few exceptions, were religious. They went to synagogues on Sabbath and Jewish holidays, celebrated Sabbath and Jewish holidays at home. The Jewish community provided food to all poor Jewish families on Sabbath, and matzah, chicken, gefilte fish and wine on Pesach. Every week collectors of money made the rounds of Jewish houses to collect money for poor Jews. They willingly contributed for the needs of the poor.

There was no routinely or state-level anti-Semitism during the Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak rule [cf. First Czechoslovak Republic] [8], but the situation changed when the Hungarians came to power in 1938.

A few generations of the Preusz family lived in Uzhgorod. My great-grandfather David Preusz, the first of the Preusz kinship about whom we have information, was a rabbi in an Orthodox synagogue in Uzhgorod, and his brother, Herman Preusz, studied in the yeshivah in Uzhgorod near their house in Rakoczi Street where our family settled down later. Herman was a rabbi somewhere in present-day Hungary.

My grandfather, my mother’s father Herman Preusz, was born in Uzhgorod in the 1840s. My grandfather didn’t finish his studies in the yeshivah and became a chazzan in the synagogue in Uzhgorod. He had a strong and beautiful voice, and many people came to listen to him singing.

There were many children in the family. My grandfather was married twice. His wife died leaving six sons. They were all born in Uzhgorod, but I don’t know the years of their birth, except for Moricz Preusz, who was born in 1880. As for the others, I will just tell their names: Andor, Lajos, Marton, Jakab and Viktor Preusz.

My grandfather remarried. His second wife was Roza, my grandmother, nee Gorowitz. Her Jewish name was Reizl. My grandmother was younger than my grandfather; she was born in the 1860s. They had four daughters. My mother, Eva Neuman, nee Preusz, was born in 1894. After my mother her sisters Romola and Magda were born.

I remember well my grandfather Herman. He was of average height, slim, with a long beard and payes. My grandfather always wore black clothes, a black hat and a kippah at home. My grandmother Roza was a slim woman of average height. She had a beautiful, biblical type face. My mother looked like my grandmother in her youth. My grandmother wore a wig and long black gowns.

In my mother’s family they spoke Yiddish at home and knew German and Hungarian well. All children received a Jewish education. I don’t know for sure, but I think the boys studied in cheder and the girls had visiting teachers at home. My grandfather also believed that secular education was important. My mother and her sisters finished a Hungarian grammar school for girls in Uzhgorod. The sons also finished grammar schools and some of them continued their education.

I don’t remember what kind of education the sons got. I remember that Lajos graduated from the Medical Faculty of some university, but I don’t know in which town. Jakab, from what I remember, was a lawyer. They were ambitious and wanted to be successful in their careers.

The Preusz family was well-respected in Uzhgorod. My mother’s parents lived in their own house in [today’s] Duchnovicha Street. I’ve been there. I don’t remember the house well, but I remember that my grandfather had his own room for prayers where he had many religious books. Of course, my grandfather and grandmother were religious. They celebrated Sabbath and Jewish holidays and followed the kashrut. Their children grew up in a religious manner and observed Jewish traditions.

In the early 20th century, before World War I, my mother’s stepbrothers Marton, Viktor and Jakab emigrated to the USA. I don’t have any information about Jakab. Marton Preusz became a Hollywood actor in the 1920s. He changed his first name to Howard and was known to the public as Howard Preusz. I had his photograph that he had sent to my parents from Hollywood in 1927. Marton is with his wife Sadie in it. This is all I know about Marton.

Marton had a son, Howard Preusz, and two daughters, whose names I don’t remember. They live in the USA. Recently Howard found me in Uzhgorod and we corresponded. Howard and his family observe Jewish traditions. Recently he invited me to his son’s bar mitzvah. Unfortunately, I cannot afford a trip to the USA and I couldn’t go to this family holiday.

Viktor was learning the tailor’s profession in Uzhgorod. To become a skilled tailor and make money he lacked experience, though. When he came to America, he didn’t want to start his life anew from becoming an apprentice. He purchased a wholesale consignment of silk curtains that didn’t sell well. Viktor used this fabric to make ties and sold it to new immigrants arriving at the New York port. His business was gradually expanding and some time later he opened a factory of ties and a shop selling them.

Then Viktor opened shops selling popular Czech glass. He chartered a ship for bringing Czech glass in big consignments. He had a retail and wholesale trade. He became a rich man. Viktor occasionally traveled to Uzhgorod and supported the community. He made a big contribution to the construction of the Jewish hospital.

Viktor got married in the USA and had a daughter, Mary, and a son. I don’t remember his name. They received education in Europe, which was a prestigious thing to do. However, after Viktor died in the 1950s, his children failed to continue his business and it gradually faded away.

My mother’s stepbrother Andor Preusz stayed in Uzhgorod and married Cili [diminutive of Cecilia], a Jewish girl from Uzhgorod. They had three sons: Miklos, Henrich and Andor, the youngest. Andor perished at the front during World War I. Cili didn’t remarry. The Preusz sisters and brothers were helping her to raise the children.

I remember little about Lajos Preusz. His wife’s name was Terez. Lajos’s daughter lives in the USA, in Brooklyn, New York. Moricz, Moisey Preusz, was not married.

My mother’s older sister Regina married Doctor Schreiber. Her husband was a popular doctor in Uzhgorod. They had four children. Their older son, Lipot Schreiber, was born in 1919 or 1920. Then Regina had no children for a long time, and then the following children were born in sequence: daughters Jolan and Dora and son Zoltan.

My mother’s younger sister Romola was married to the lawyer Lajos Kubat. Their only son Miklos was born in 1937. My mother’s sisters were housewives. Her younger sister Magda was single and lived with her parents.

When Subcarpathia belonged to Austria-Hungary, there was a loyal [tolerant] attitude toward Jews. There was no state anti-Semitism. Even in my mother’s prayer book published in Austria-Hungary in two languages, Hebrew with the German translation, there is a prayer where Jews ask God to save Franz Joseph, the emperor of Austria-Hungary for all times. Franz Joseph was very loyal [tolerant] to Jews and patronized them.

Now I’ll go back to my parents. After the wedding they stayed in Budapest. In 1920 my older sister Judit was born. I was born in 1923 and named Stepan and my Jewish name is Isroel. I don’t know the Jewish names of my sister Judit and my brother Frantisek. We only used our Hungarian names in the family. [The Hungarian version of Frantisek is Ferenc, this is the form they used in the family.]

The revolution in Hungary failed. The democratic rule only lasted 103 days. [The interviewee is referring to the Hungarian Council (Soviet) Republic that actually existed for 133 days, starting on 21st March 1919.] Then in 1924 a real white terror began. [It began right after putting down the communists.] The authorities persecuted all those involved in the revolutionary movement one way or another. People were hanged, imprisoned and executed. To rescue those who were in danger, they were told to find shelter in other countries. Some of them moved to the USSR.

For my parents and my mother’s brother Moricz it was best to go to Uzhgorod where my mother’s family lived and that was annexed to Czechoslovakia [cf. Trianon Peace Treaty] [9]. At that time Tomas Garrigue Masaryk [10] was President of Czechoslovakia. He was very loyal to political immigrants. Czechoslovakia needed to have printing houses on the territory of annexed Podkarpatska Rus [Czech and Slovak for Subcarpathian Ruthenia], as Subcarpathia was called at that time [during the Czechoslovak era it was also often referred to as Rusinsko], to issue newspapers in various languages.

The USA provided funds for Moricz Preusz to purchase polygraphist equipment. Moricz Preusz bought a fully equipped printing house in Russkaya Street [this is the contemporary name of the street] in Uzhgorod from the Lam polygraphist company that went bankrupt and was selling out its property.

Moricz offered my father to organize two newspapers: Vostochnaya Gazeta and Novyie Izvestiya in Czech and Ukrainian [Ruthenian] to publish the Czechoslovakian state governed information on the first two pages and articles of the democratic leftist bias on the remaining space. My father was invited to Czechoslovakia as a specialist in the polygraph business, and he became a major polygraphist and book printer.

My father was happy to do his favorite work. He knew German well and ordered polygraphist equipment in Germany to print great numbers of newspapers. This equipment was delivered to Uzhgorod and it was necessary to install it and train employees to work on it. My father became chairman of the trade union of polygraphist workers of Uzhgorod. When the production was in place my father dedicated himself to the newspaper business: he edited articles, wrote articles, did translations and corrections.

In the first years upon arrival in Uzhgorod our family rented an apartment from the Jewish family of Danzinger. They were very religious people. They had mezuzot over the entrance door to their house and over the door to each room. The Danzingers were in good relations with my parents, and it was with them that I observed the Jewish traditions for the first time in my life. On Sukkot they installed a sukkah in the yard and invited us to join them there. On Friday my mother always visited them for Sabbath and took me and my sister Judit with her.

My father earned well, and in 1927 we moved into our own house built on my father’s order. It cost 100 thousand crowns. A portion of this money was my mother’s dowry, and the rest was what my father earned. This was a lot of money at the time. I spent my best years, my childhood and youth, in this house and this is also where I live now.

My younger brother was named with the Czech name of Frantisek [in the family Ferenc, the Hungarian form, was used], after my father’s older brother who died in his infancy. He was born in this house in 1927. After Frantisek was born, my mother became sickly. At times she didn’t leave her bed.

I remember my mother in her bed with a prayer book in her hands. The doctors were helpless to do something for her and she asked God for help. My mother couldn’t do any work about the house and my father hired servants. I don’t know what the disease was, but I know that it was a consequence of the complicated childbirth. She was sickly and weak and my father protected her.

My mother spoke Yiddish in her parents’ home, but it was hard for my father to talk in Yiddish and Hungarian was spoken more often in our house. When they were in Subcarpathia my parents began to learn Czech. Jews always got adjusted to the country they lived in studying the language, customs and traditions of its people.

My father believed there were two values in life: education and health. After we moved into our house, our parents hired a governess to teach us languages. Her name was Hedvika Belska, a young girl from Olomouc [in Moravia]. My mother couldn’t spend much time with us due to her health condition, and Hedvika became our second mother. She knew Czech and German and spoke these languages to us. She took us out and in winter we all, including our father, went sleighing. I still remember German songs that we sang with Hedvika and I can sing them. I shall never forget Hedvika, she was a part of my childhood and I will always keep love for her in my heart. After World War II I was trying to find Hedvika, but I failed.

My father was a convinced atheist, and we, children, were not raised religiously, but we celebrated Jewish holidays. On Jewish holidays our family and my mother’s brother Moisey always visited Cili, the widow of my mother’s brother Andor, who had perished at the front.

Cili was religious and believed that her sons had to observe Jewish traditions. Moisey, like my father, was an atheist, but he knew all Jewish traditions, knew how to celebrate all holidays, and had a good conduct of Hebrew. Moisey always conducted the seder on Pesach. One of Cili’s sons asked the traditional questions. Cili cooked traditional Jewish food. We didn’t celebrate Jewish holidays at home. My mother always lit candles on Sabbath, but my father was quite indulgent about it and didn’t participate in the Sabbath events.

Judit and I went to a Czech school for boys and girls. Hedvika Belska taught us good Czech and we didn’t have any problems at school. It’s a difficult language. There were three to four Jewish pupils in each grade. There was no anti-Semitism during the Czech rule and Jews were treated loyally and with respect. My sister or I never heard anything abusive or face any humiliating attitudes. We studied well and our teachers often cited us as an example to other children. My father inculcated into us how important it was to be educated people, and his opinions were indisputable for us.

There were religious classes for Christians and Jews at school. Jews had these classes with a rabbi. At my father’s request I was released from attending religious classes. In my record card I had a dash in the subject line item for religion. Later in my documents was indicated: ‘No creed.’ When it was time for my younger brother Frantisek to go to school, he went to a Czech grammar school that was supposed to give a better education than state schools.

In 1935 my mother’s father, Herman Preusz, died. I remember well his funeral. He was a well known and respected man in the town and probably all Jews of Uzhgorod came to his funeral. I remember how he was taken on a cart to the Jewish cemetery in Uzhgorod and numbers of Jews were walking behind this cart.

My grandfather was buried in an open casket in accordance with Jewish customs, and his religious books were put in this casket so that he could continue studying them like he did during his lifetime. There were many books, and there was lots of studying to be done.

My mother’s brother Moricz recited the Kaddish over my grandfather’s grave. Grandmother Roza and her daughters sat shivah for Grandfather. I remember women tearing the edges of everybody’s clothing at my grandfather’s funeral. I was very concerned having my best suit on.

In 1938 Subcarpathia was annexed to Hungary. [Editor’s note: Hungarian troops occupied Subcarpathia in March 1939. The western part where Ungvar/Uzhorod/Uzhgorod is was attached to Hungary as early as 2nd November 1938, together with Southern Slovakia as a result of the First Vienna Decision.] People of the older generation, those who had lived during the Austro-Hungarian rule, were enthusiastic about it. They never learned Czech, and Hungarian was their native language that they spoke even during the Czech rule. Only few understood that this was a fascist Hungary that was going to exterminate Jews.

Fascism was conceived in Hungary long before Hitler came to power in Germany. [The interviewee probably refers to the anti-Semitic, chauvinistic and reactionary Horthy regime that was in power in Hungary from 1919 until 1944.] Anti-Semitic literature was published. In one book it said that everything Jews were doing caused damage to the countries where they lived, but they were doing it to make the life of Jews better. There were maps of the contemporary world enclosed indicating the density of Jewish population, so that it became known where they should be chased away from in the first turn.

There was also a chapter describing how to distinguish between a Jew and non-Jew. That this and that shape of the nose will enable a gendarme to recognize a Jew despite any camouflage. So I believe that nationalism and anti-Semitism were propagated by such literature.

There was a manual for gendarmes, three volumes, published in Hungary. Jews were blamed for terrible things, and the book explained why they were to be exterminated. Knowing this, one does not get surprised at how indifferent and calm the gendarmes were taking innocent people to ghettos and sending them to concentration camps. They were trained in advance and taught to see an enemy in each Jew.

I’ve already mentioned that my father believed health to be one of the two most important things in life. He said that a Jew had to be strong and healthy and be able to make his way in our hard life. Very hard life. My father was a great mountain skier, mountaineer, and hiker and trained my brother and me to this way of life. Many Jews of Uzhgorod, intelligentsia, liked spending time in the Carpathian Mountains, the most beautiful ones in the world. They gathered in groups and there were also members of the Zionist organization Betar there [11]. My father always joined these groups to go hiking in the mountains. Those people trusted each other.

I was still a boy then and it was then that I heard for the first time in my life them talking about Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the Hungarian government and the perspective that was dark.

My father knew German well and knew Germany. He took interest in everything happening in this country before and after Hitler came to power [12]. My father, who had lived among Germans for a long time, could not believe that German people were capable of doing the things happening during the Hitler rule. They also discussed the situation of Jews in Subcarpathia. Jews have always had a hard life.

My father believed that for Jews assimilation was an escape from anti-Semitism and persecution. He said it was not mandatory to marry a Jew, that there were decent people of other nationalities and the children in such marriages, grandchildren and the following generations would not bear this heavy burden of anti-Semitism.

During the Czech rule Frantisek Ganzlik, a Czech man, began to court my sister. My sister was a beauty and he fell in love with her. Their parents gave them their consent and they got engaged. They ordered invitation cards to the wedding, when the German army invaded Czechoslovakia [16th March 1939]. My father didn’t allow Judit to get married and live in the occupied country, and Frantisek could not leave his family business in Czechoslovakia [cf. Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia] [13], and my sister’s marriage never took place.

The Germans began to introduce their Nazi laws in Czechoslovakia and Jews were having a hard time. It was impossible to get a job and Jewish children were not allowed to go to school. They had to give away their shops, stores and factories to non-Jewish owners. At first they were to train the new owners and then quit their business. Jews were pushed aside the sources of income.

But this was just a beginning. It started much earlier than in Subcarpathia. It was done in stages: first they intended to take away anything Jews owned – their property and estate – everything, and when there was nothing left to take – they sent them to concentration camps.

I finished school in 1938. I was good at drawing and my father dreamed of me becoming an architect. Before Subcarpathia was transferred to Hungary [Hungary actually occupied Subcarpathia] I managed to get all excellent marks at the entrance exams to the Architecture Faculty of the Construction College in Presov, a Slovakian town, and was admitted. There had been no open fascism in Slovakia. However, I didn’t get a chance to study in the college. Germans invaded Czechia and Slovakia became an ally of Germany and I, being a Jew, was not allowed to study.

A construction company admitted me as an apprentice. Its owner was a Jew. My father thought it would be good for me to work in construction and see with my own eyes how a drawing turned into a building. I was even paid a little. Though sometimes, when a night guard did not come to work I had to guard the construction site. I was not afraid of staying there at night – I made a fire and managed, but my mother couldn’t sleep at night and met me in the morning. However, this job was a temporary way out of this situation. I needed to learn a profession enabling me to have a decent life.

In 1938 I joined an underground communist organization of young people in Uzhgorod called ‘Kommunista Ifjumunkasok Magyarorszagi Szovetsege’. [Alliance of Hungarian Communist Young Workers, best known by its Hungarian abbreviation KIMSZ. It worked illegally in Hungary during the counter-revolutionary Horthy regime (1919-1944). KIMSZ also published an illegal newspaper, ‘Ifju Proletar’ (Young Proletarian).] Its leader was a professor of Uzhgorod University, a Jew named Rothmann. It was forbidden in Hungary and this was an underground organization. I was a member of this organization for a year, before leaving for Budapest.

I was a sportsman and received a task requiring training. Before the building of the People’s Council there was a seven meter high post with a hand on top of it holding a laurel wreath and a green velvet Hungarian banner on it with a white sign – a cross and a spike. This was a symbolic sign of the Hungarian fascist party. I climbed this post at night and took the laurel wreath and the banner off the post. I threw the laurel wreath into the Uzh River.

There was Hungarian gendarmerie near the river. This building houses the Medical Faculty of the University now. I put the banner in my bosom and went home past the gendarmerie building. At home I put the banner into my wardrobe and on the next day I showed it at our secret meeting. This was one of my tasks in this organization, and probably the most dangerous one.

Sometime later Rothmann was taken to prison and sentenced to death for being a communist. His executioners delayed the execution hoping that Rothmann would give up his comrades and members of the organization. He was continuously called to interrogations and was tortured. This delay saved Rothmann’s life. In October 1944 Soviet troops liberated Uzhgorod; the Hungarians retreated hurriedly, and Rothmann survived. After the war Rothmann lectured on history at Uzhgorod University. He died in Uzhgorod in 1984.

In Hungary the persecution of Jews began and anti-Jewish laws [14] were introduced. There was one escape – forged documents that a person had adopted Christianity [but only until 1941]. My father decided that I could become a lithographer. There was a polygraphist factory called ‘Palas’ in Budapest where they employed lithographer apprentices. Only hereditary Christians could become apprentices, i.e., there were to be at least two generations after somebody adopted Christianity. I don’t know how my father did it, but he got me forged documents. My new birth certificate indicated that my mother and father were Christian.

I went to Budapest. However, I didn’t care about lithography and I became an apprentice in the Lendvai Brothers Company, manufacturing household chemical goods. There were three Lendvai brothers, Jews, very rich people. They had big capital, three chemical enterprises.

I learned production of household chemical goods for four years. I studied production of chemical dry saltery goods, cosmetic goods, cleaning, lacquer goods, antiseptics, materials for tree sprays, and paints and ink. We were also taught the basics of management: how to sell the goods besides manufacturing them.

In January 1944 I passed my exams and was awarded the qualification of a specialist for manufacture and sales of household chemical goods. I went to Uzhgorod hoping to find a job there. Besides, I missed home.

When I studied in Budapest mandatory military training called Levente movement [15] was introduced for young men reaching the age of 18. They were training troops for German and its ally Hungarian armies. Jews were also involved in military training. We were given uniforms and we had military training four times per week. We had drill training, were taught to shoot, assemble and disassemble weapons and protect from gas attacks.

The songs we marched to were anti-Semitic and Jews were forced to sing them and they even watched that we did not only pretend to be singing. I remember some words but not the whole text: ‘Egy rabbi, ket rabbi talicskaznak mar…’ [One rabbi, two rabbis working with wheelbarrows…] and another one: ‘Ussuk a zsidokat bikacsokkel, eljen a Szalasi meg a Hitler!’ [Let us beat the Jews with a whip, long live both Szalasi and Hitler.]

I hadn’t been in Uzhgorod for almost five years. Many things changed. Hungarian authorities took all industrial enterprises and shops away from Jews. They were getting wealthier doing this. People were looking for a way out. Some moved to England, Portugal and others crossed the border with the USSR. The end of these escapists was sad. Soviet frontier men captured them on the border and from there they were sent to the Gulag [16].

There was an example of this in our family. The middle son of my mother’s brother Andor and his wife Cili Preusz served in the Czech army. He was a very handsome and sporty man. He was older than me, but we were very close. When the Hungarians came to power he stayed with the Hungarian army till the law forbidding Jews to be in military service was issued in 1939. Henrich was sent to be a stable man. Henrich sympathized with communists and had communist brochures in his rucksack. They found them and Henrich was to be taken to the tribunal.

I don’t know how he managed to escape from the army. There was no way he could hide in Subcarpathia and so he decided to escape to the USSR. He climbed the mountains [Carpathians] and descended on Soviet territory in Ivano-Frankovsk region. Frontier men captured him and took him to prison in Stryy. There were no interrogations or trial. Henrich was called to the chief’s office who told him that he had been sentenced to ten years in camps in the Far East, 7000 km from home, in Vorkuta.

Henrich said later that the frontier men did not believe one word he said. He tried to tell them that he was a communist and a member of the communist organization of young people, but at best they laughed in his face. In his newly issued Soviet camp documents Henrich was renamed as Ivan Preusz. He was kept in the camp eight years of his due ten. He was released before his term was over. Henrich was an electrician, and in his last years of imprisonment he worked as an electrician in a mine.

After he was released he was only allowed to live in Vorkuta. Only after World War II, Henrich managed to return to Uzhgorod. His relatives were gone. I helped him to obtain a residence permit [17] in Uzhgorod. Henrich settled down in the house where his mother lived and where we went on Pesach.

Henrich fell ill soon, the doctors identified cancer of intestines. Henrich couldn’t eat anything and was awfully thin. The disease developed promptly. Henrich died in Uzhgorod in 1959. We buried him in the Jewish cemetery and installed a monument with an inscription of his name: Henrich Preusz.

He is the only member of his family having a grave. Both brothers perished in a work battalion in Ukraine during World War II. There is no information about the time or place of their death. Cili, their mother, was taken to the ghetto in Uzhgorod and from there to Auschwitz where she perished.

There were Jews in Subcarpathia whose ancestors came there from near the border areas of Ukraine. According to Hungarian laws, these people were not citizens of Hungary and were subject to deportation. In 1942 the Hungarians took these people to Ivano-Frankovsk region on the territory of Ukraine, ordered them to dig graves and shot them.

I knew two survivors from Uzhgorod, their last name was Klein. They were not even wounded, but they fell into the pit with the others. The Germans just backfilled the pit carelessly and left. The Kleins managed to get out of this pit and local villagers gave them shelter. Later they managed to return home.

After returning to Uzhgorod I got involved in the activities of my communist youth organization. We wrote a big slogan in red paint demanding work and bread for workers on the building of gendarmerie. A former circus acrobat wrote it and I made the red paint. Even making paint was a crime and if they had captured me, I would have been taken to prison for seven years.

The publishing house where my father was an editor and which was my uncle Moricz Preusz’s property was to be transferred to a non-Jewish owner or to the state. The Hungarian authorities guessed that it was taking Moricz a long time to do the transfer. They arrested and took him to prison. During interrogations they reminded him of his revolutionary activities in Hungary in 1919. In April 1944 Moricz was executed in prison in Uzhgorod. He was a very nice person and his death was a big tragedy in our family.

My father expected an arrest since the publishing business was a common business of Moricz and my father. From 1939 anti-Jewish laws were becoming more and more cruel. In 1943 it became clear that it was the turning point in the war and that the Germans were likely to lose it.

Almost all newspapers were closed down in 1940. The only newspapers published came from state-owned printing houses and they were of fascist direction. The newspapers where my father was working, ‘Uj Kezdemeny’ [New Initiative] and ‘Keleti Ujsag’ [Eastern News] were officially closed in January 1944. Those were weekly newspapers. They were both democratic newspapers and were closed for this reason. The official information was published on the first two pages, and the rest of the space was given to free topics, but according to the political orientation they were leftist. Even before this time there had been serious difficulties and it actually didn’t come out: they were not allowing purchasing paper or closed their bank accounts.

Jews were to wear sewed on their clothes yellow stars of David. It was only allowed to show up in the streets with them or the punishment was to be shot. According to one of the anti-Jewish laws, from 1944 on the walls, doors and gates of Jewish houses they painted with indelible paint the Star of David, 40 by 40 centimeters. The gendarmes knew very well where Jews lived. These signs allowed anyone to break into the house, rob it, rape and torture the tenants. Gendarmes had the right to come into these houses at any time and could even kill the tenants of such yellow star houses.

In March 1944 it was forbidden to leave those houses till deportation took place on 15th May 1944. Before our house there was a fence supported by four concrete posts. One morning we saw a Star of David painted on each post, six stars. My father came to see me in the morning and said we had to clean up what this dirty gang had done. We took metal scrubbers and scrubbed every post. It took us a long time: the stars were painted in nitro paint and it was very stable.

My father followed the progress of combat actions. We listened to the radio at night: London, USA and Moscow. We had a big map of Europe and the Soviet Union on the wall. Every time my father marked the movement of troops on this map. We had no visitors, so nobody could see this map.

My father figured out that the Soviet troops could be in the Subcarpathian region in February 1944, and that the Hungarian fascists had no time to meet the request of Eichmann [18] to have the Hungarian Jews at his disposal. My father was hoping that the Soviet troops would make the deportation impossible. His guess was six to seven months late.

The Soviet troops, the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Front, stopped before the Carpathians. The troops that were supposed to enter Subcarpathia from the other side, stopped in the Romanian town of Beleti on the other side of the Carpathians. These Soviet troops were late to come here. We didn’t know why they couldn’t cross the Carpathians. There was a strong defense line around the Carpathians made by Jewish work battalions which worked there since 1942. All men capable to work were mobilized to work battalions.

I saw my family for the last time in February 1944. There was an announcement on the town hall that all young men born in1922 and1923 were to make their appearance in the recruitment commission. I was subject to recruitment.

I received a military identity card with the big letters ‘ZS’ stamped on its cover sheet, the first letters of the Hungarian word ‘Zsido,’ meaning Jewish. I asked what this meant and they explained that it stood for a Jew, and according to the law of 1939 [actually 1941] Jews were only recruited to work battalions to work at the front line or other locations. They gave us a list of what to take with us. Tailor Bloch, my father’s friend, made me a rucksack and bag for bread. We were not allowed to take personal belongings with us.

I went to the railway station wearing my clothes with a yellow star. I had to go to Kosice. There in the suburb there was a tented camp. I arrived in the evening, stayed overnight in a hotel and in the morning I went to the camp. There were many Jews there already. This camp performed the tasks ordered by the military department and gendarmerie.

From there they sent people to dig trenches, build pillboxes and other military fortifications. Only physically strong people could do this work, but there were lawyers, doctors, and teachers among the inmates of the camp, who were not so strong or young. Some only had Jews in the second or third generation of their ancestors, but they were still Jews for the Hungarians.

I was assigned to a unit and given a place in the barrack. There were no beds. We slept on the floor with haversacks that served us as pillows. After the first night that I spent in the stables I got lice. This was everybody’s problem. There was no hot water available to wash our heads. We could only wash ourselves with cold water in the morning. This was February and there was still snow on the ground. We wore our clothes that we had from home.

It was mandatory to have yellow stars on the chest and back and yellow arm bands. They shot those who didn’t wear them. In my unit there was a painter from Uzhgorod. His name was Weiss. We tried to keep together.

The tented camp existed since 1941, from the time when Germany [and Hungary] attacked the USSR [19]. In 1941 they were sending workforce from this camp to work in Ukraine, and from 1942 – to any front line zones where they needed workforce. In total 40,000 Jews in work battalions were sent to the USSR from Hungary, but only 7,000 survived. Actually work in work battalions was the death penalty. Those Jews who worked on railroads installing tracks or cleaning up the road were more fortunate than those working at the front.

Those who were captured by the Soviet armies also survived. The majority of them were taken to the Gulag and from there those who were citizens of Czechoslovakia before 1938, under the agreement between Stalin and Czechoslovak President Benes [20], formed the Czechoslovak Corps. It joined the Soviet army during its advance in Europe and its Commander was General Svoboda [21]. There were many Subcarpathian Jews in it, and many Jews were at the front joining the Soviet troops in liberation of the European countries occupied by fascist Germany.

We worked in Kosice. They formed a unit of 50 young and strong people and I was one of them. Jews of Kosice were taken to the ghettos and their houses were sealed. In the presence of the military gendarmerie we were opening these apartments to pack everything valuable left in these apartments, load it onto wagons and transport this load to the synagogue in Kosice where the Hungarians made a storage facility. The furniture and other property of the synagogue were taken into the yard. There were shelves and partials made at the synagogue for storage purposes.

People left a lot in the apartments since they could only take the most necessary things with them: food, clothing and shoes. There were carpets, pictures, valuables, books and household goods left in their houses. This was all subject to sorting out and removal. We sorted out clothes: women’s fur coats, leather coats, underwear and shoes. Our senior man, a Jew, told us what we had to load.

We only did physical work and there was another unit knocking on the walls looking for hidden jewelry and money. I don’t know for sure what happened to those, but people were saying that the town authorities and the rest went to the non-Jewish population of Kosice. They were building up their wealth on stolen things – this was the easiest way. Alas, I was also involved in this. I took boots in one apartment and a blanket in another. The gendarmes turned a blind eye to this.

Jews were kept in the ghetto in Kosice for about a month before they began to be taken to concentration camps: Auschwitz, Buchenwald [22], Mauthausen. Only few survived there.

When we were done with removing things from Jewish houses, we were taken to the railroad station. The trains in which deported Jews were taken to concentration camps, stopped near Kosice. These were trains for cattle transportation with barred windows. We could see people’s faces, when they were trying to look out of the windows. The railcars were packed with people. There was a terrible stench inside, but people seemed to ignore it.

It was horrible to see it, but it was worse to think that my family might be in one of these trains. We already knew that they were taken to death camps. The Hungarian gendarmes, our commanders, told us about it.

The gendarmes surrounded the trains, so that nobody could escape from there, and Jews from work battalions were to clean the railcars and fetch drinking water when the trains stopped. There were holes made in the floor of the railcars. They were used as toilets. We scrubbed the sewage into buckets with spades and then poured water on the floor with hoses. There was one bucket of drinking water brought to each railcar.

We were not allowed to talk to these people and the gendarmes were watching us not to do it. We were told of an incident, when a guy from a work battalion exchanged a couple of words with the people in a railcar and was immediately arrested by a gendarme. I only heard about it and have no information about what happened to the guy. We didn’t ever try to do it.

I witnessed the most horrific thing throughout the time of my service in a work battalion on 14th May 1944. There was a dead end railroad spur after crossing the railroad bridge. When a train stopped there, we went to clean it as usual. It was a hot summer day and the steel roofs of the railcars were overheated. The people inside must have been suffering from the heat and stuffiness.

I heard a man shouting from another railcar. He called my name. This was a shoemaker from Uzhgorod. He knew me and my family well. He owned a shop in Uzhgorod. All of us, but my mother, went mountain skiing and he made ski boots for us. I listened: he was shouting that in this railcar with him were my parents, my sister and younger brother, my mother’s sister Romola and her son and Magda.

I felt sick and almost fainted, but somebody held me. My comrades dragged me away from this railcar since if the gendarmes had come by, they would have thrown me into this railcar. They kept me away from this train till the train moved on.

Later, after the war, my younger brother Frantisek, who was in this railcar, told me that they saw me from the window. Frantisek told me the details of this terrible trip, the last tour of my dear ones.

Of course, my father could have escaped. He was an enthusiastic mountaineer, and could have gone to the mountains that he knew no worse than his own apartment and hide away there as long as he needed to. My father was 63 and he was a strong man, perfectly healthy, but my mother was severely ill and my father couldn’t leave her. For him his family, and especially so his wife, was the dearest and holy thing. And so my father stayed with his beloved wife, my mother, till their last day.

In April 1944 the family was taken to the ghetto at the brick factory, formerly owned by the Jew Moshkovich, in Uzhgorod. A month later they were put on the train to Auschwitz. In the railcar my mother felt very ill and often fainted. She hardly realized anything. She sat on the floor in a corner. Somehow, my brother managed to keep his flick knife in his pocket that the gendarmes missed during the search. He made a hole in the wall of the railcar to let in some fresh air for my mother.

When the train arrived at Auschwitz, my mother couldn’t walk. My father carried her in his arms from the railcar and went to the gas chamber with her. They sorted out those who could work and those who were to be exterminated immediately. My parents and Miklos, Romola’s little son, were taken to one side, and Frantisek, Judit, Magda and Romola were taken to the other side.

Romola didn’t want to leave her son and went with him. She knew that she was going to die, but she preferred to die with her son rather than live without him. They were taken to a public shower that was actually a gas chamber. There were no survivors there.

Frantisek was taken to Buchenwald, Judie – to the work camp Bergen-Belsen [23]. Magda was in the work camp in Reichenbach.

The plant in the work camp Bergen-Belsen did dry distillation of coal, the products of which were used for military equipment. My sister and 50 other girls from Uzhgorod, including both daughters of cabinetmaker Hotzman, our neighbor, worked at this plant. Judit had education and knew German well. She worked in the canteen, talking to food suppliers for the inmates.

Once I even received a letter from my sister. There was the name of the German town of Walsen on the envelope, as the sender’s address. I didn’t find the town on the map and nobody knew about this town. [Editor’s note: Walsen is in Lower Saxony, south of Bremen.] Later I got to know that they were made to write this name so that nobody could find them.

The letters were checked and they were to write that everything was fine, but the most important for me was that I got her letter and knew that she was alive. I was hoping that at least the two of us would survive. I was dreaming about the time when my sister and I would return home and I would be working to support my sister, but this was not to be. Judit and a few other girls perished in this camp before the very end of the war, when an American bomb hit the barrack. The Hotzman sisters also perished with her.

The next task for our work battalion was construction of air fields near Debrecen in Hungary for German planes to land in case of retreat. The existing air field did not suit them. This was to become their base for the planes that were formerly based in Ukraine and Poland. The front line was approaching.

Some 250 people were selected for Debrecen. There were a few Jews from Subcarpathia with me. The senior man was a carpenter, a Jew. He was given a military uniform, but the rest of us wore our civilian clothes. The commanding staff of the battalion was Hungarian. They had weapons. They didn’t treat us badly – in fall 1944 it was clear that they had lost the war.

We worked at the air field for two weeks grading the air field. We cut turf, took it to the field on barrows and compacted it. When we were working there, American and English planes were already flying over Hungary and bombed Debrecen. During air raids the banshees were on. Once there were many planes in the sky. They looked like little stars high in the sky and did not seem scary. The banshees sounded more terrible making our hearts squeeze. We were not allowed to leave the field even during air raids.

I was scared to the state of panic during air raids. I thought I would prefer to be shot by the Hungarians rather than a bomb hitting me. When another air raid began I ran into a drainage ditch on the side of the field. There was deep dirty water in it, but I ran there anyway. Then firings began. Those were the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts approaching. They tried to destroy the utilities that played their role for the German troops retreat to slow them down.

When we finished our work at the air field we were put on a train. It moved slowly – the tracks were packed with other trains. We didn’t know where we were going to. Only officers knew the point of destination: the ‘Uz Volgye’ [Hungarian for Uz Valley; today it is called Valea Uzului in Romanian] in the Eastern Carpathians. Unfortunately, I cannot tell where we were exactly located. We were near Csikszereda, Szaszregen and Sepsiszentgyorgy. This part of Romania – [Northern] Transylvania [24], was annexed to Hungary at this time. [cf. Hungarian Era] [25].

When our train passed the Temesvar station an air raid began. [Editor’s note: Temesvar was not part of Hungary during World War II but of Romania and as a result no Hungarian military trains entered the city. The interviewee probably confused Temesvar with the similarly sounding Kolozsvar, which was a major city in Hungarian Transylvania. Kolozsvar is located on the way towards the Uz Valley in Eastern Transylvania, so it is very likely that he refers to the bombing of Kolozsvar, which took place on 2nd July 1944.] Our train was taken to a dead end spur. Bombs were falling around and we heard explosions, but we were not allowed to get off the train.

There were sentinels by each railcar. I was so much afraid of dying from a bomb that I jumped off the railcar and ran into a shelter. The sentinel was shooting into the air to warn me, but it didn’t stop me. I stayed in my shelter till it was over. There were pits big enough for a big house left after the bombing. The buildings were destroyed and the tracks were twisted and burned off.

When the banshees were off the survivors gathered back in the train. We moved on and did some work on our way, when the train stopped. We gathered bricks on the ruins and piled them and put things in order. Our work manager was a Hungarian man in the rank of captain, a former teacher.

We reached the ‘Uz Volgy.’ The locals had left the area. The front line was moving closer and there were frequent bombings. Our camp was guarded. Escape was punished according to the law of the wartime – by execution, like desertion.

We were involved in forced labor. During a day and at night we worked at road restoration: we crushed stones with crushers, piling them in prisms, removed blockages caused by air raids. We took the stones out of a mountainous river and gave it to one another standing in a chain to take it to a work spot on the road.

I was a strong guy and they involved me in stone crushing mainly. I found out that it was easier to crush wet stones and began to save my strength. Each of us had to crush a certain quantity of cubic meters of stones. Then this crushed stone was manually placed on the road bedding and compacted.

This road was constructed for German troops to reach the Transylvanian Alps through Romania and from there descend with tanks on the other side onto the Hungarian lowland. We worked from morning till night regardless of the weather. When it got dark they kept vehicle lights on for us to continue work.

I decided to try to escape from this work camp, but I failed. I couldn’t escape without food and water. We were fed miserably, but I managed to save at least a piece of bread from each meal.

When the Red army continued its advance to Romania and German troops were retreating from Ukraine, our camp was let under the German command. The Germans introduced much stricter rules than we had under the Hungarians. From then on every minute of the life of Jews might have been their last minute.

We were ordered to line up, undress and take everything out of our rucksacks. The Germans walked along the lines ransacking our belongings with a stick to determine whether we had what we were not allowed to have. Of course, their biggest concern was that we might get weapons. We were not allowed to have any food. If we had something it meant that this person was plotting an escape. We were not allowed to have an extra pair of socks or a clean shirt. If they found something this person was given a double work scope to do in a day and if it happened the second time – this meant execution.

A German sergeant supervised our work. He gave us tasks and showed us where we had to dig trenches. While we were working he sat on a stone with his machine gun on his chest, took of his shirt and began to search for lice musing to himself, ‘Hitler kaput!’ This was 1944 and he understood that this was the end of the war. We excavated trenches and Soviet planes photographed them every day. Then bombers dropped bombs on the trenches ruining them.

In October 1944 the German retreat began. They were retreating and were moving us in the direction of Hungary. We walked on the roads of Transylvania pushing the carts with spades, crushers and rucksacks ahead of us and the guards were constantly digging in them looking for weapons. The field gendarmerie was following us to watch for escapists and execute them for desertion.

We reached the small town of Somcuta Mare. For some reason my unit of about 20 people was left to work in Somcuta Mare. We were accommodated in the cowshed of a Greek Catholic priest. At night we could hear the artillery cannonades close by. On the morning of 15th October a scared servant of the priest ran in and asked us to go away since the Germans were retreating and the gendarmerie was looking for those who were not leaving with them.

I understood that if the gendarmes found us, this would mean our end. I woke up my comrades to tell them what was going on. I left all my belongings in this cowshed and ran into a field across the yard. There was a river there and I was hoping to get to the bridge. While I was running the bridge exploded. I understood that the Germans had blasted it after crossing the bridge. If they had blasted it, this meant they didn’t need it any more. I jumped into a trench and the guards didn’t notice me.

Later that morning I heard machine gun shooting. It was clear that infantry troops were advancing. I looked out of the trench and saw a Soviet officer. I was so happy that I was rescued. He had a machine gun and in an instant could have killed me, if he had thought I was German, but he took me to the headquarters for interrogation.

We had studied the Ruthenian language in the Czech school, and I knew Russian letters and understood Russian. The officer asked me who I was and where I came from. I said I was from Czechoslovakia. I didn’t say I was a Jew, I said I was Czech. He asked me what languages I understood. After the interrogation he said he was taking me with him.

I became an interpreter of Hungarian, Czech and German in the army headquarters. They gave me a soldier’s uniform, a belt and a cap. This was the infantry intelligence of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. I crossed Hungary with them along Nyiregyhaza, from there – to Mandok. This was near Uzhgorod [35 km from Uzhgorod]. I missed home so much. I was not allowed a leave, but I left the unit, crossed the Tisa and came onto a road. A truck gave me a lift to Uzhgorod where we arrived in the evening. This was 28th October 1944.

There was a military unit accommodated in our house. I couldn’t stay there and so I went to my father’s acquaintances – the Sas family, Ruthenians. Sas was a teacher of the grammar school and had often gone hiking with my father. Sas is no longer among the living and his children live abroad.

There were no Jews in Uzhgorod. They began to return in May 1945. The Sas family were happy to see me. I took a shower and they gave me food. They told me to hide in the basement since Soviet soldiers might arrest me in the town. I stayed with them for about a month.

Sas mentioned the name of Jakubovics who had worked in the town hall and was a member of the Communist party of Subcarpathia, who was in the town. He said that Jakubovics was much respected by the Soviet military. I was happy to hear this name – I knew Jakubovics well. He was a friend of my younger brother Frantisek. They studied in the grammar school together and Jakubovics had often visited our home. We also often met in our communist youth organization. I asked Sas to help me meet with Jakubovics. I met with him and obtained a pass to walk freely in the town.

In December 1944 the local Jew Samuel Weiss arrived in Uzhgorod; before World War II he was a waiter in a restaurant and a member of the Communist Party of the USSR. When the war began, he was sent to the USSR where he studied in a Higher Party School [26]. Then he returned with the Soviet troops to restore Subcarpathia. Weiss was involved in the inventory and restoration of industry.

By the end of 1944 the military moved out of my house and I could go back there. In Uzhgorod they also took away valuables from the houses. My parents’ bedroom was sealed. There was furniture left there, the one that Grandfather Herman gave my mother as her dowry.

When I came into the room, I saw notes on the floor. They were written in my father’s handwriting on one side and somebody else’s on the other. I knew that two weeks before Jews were being taken to the ghetto they were forbidden to leave their houses. My father wrote messages to his friends and other Jews and the Catholic servant took those messages to them and brought back their answers.

There was one message to Bloch, my father’s friend, who went hiking with us. My father wrote, ‘What’s new in the town? When will they take us to the ghetto?’ and signed ‘Ede Neuman.’ On the back side there is Bloch’s reply, where he wrote that it was to happen soon, and gave a list of what was allowed to be taken to the ghetto. There were also my father’s notes. He put down his thoughts on paper – a journalistic habit. One note said, ‘I live in a country where I have no right to work, no right to study, to apply myself, but I have the right to hard labor and to die there.’

The others told me that non-Jewish neighbors were not very good to Jews. They were afraid to help Jews, afraid of the gendarme’s anger. When people were taken to the ghetto, two gendarmes came to the houses to convoy them. They mercilessly took them onto wagons, didn’t allow them to take what they needed with them. The neighbors, if they were in the street, averted their eyes since if gendarmes suspected them of sympathy they could have also taken them onto these wagons.

When they were taking away my family, my father dropped his Swiss ‘Omega’ watch onto the grass in front of the house. Our Hungarian neighbor picked it up, and when I returned home, he gave it to me. I recognized the watch right away: my father used to keep it in his vest pocket and the chain was hanging down. I kept this watch for a long time. When in 1993 my brother visited Uzhgorod I gave it to him, as a memory of our father. He is younger than me and he will live longer and will give it to his children.

I was so happy when my brother returned home in July 1945. In May 1944 he was sent to Buchenwald from Auschwitz. I have a photo of my brother from the file of prisoner #463, Jew Ferenc Neuman, dated 24th May 1944 [Ferenc the Hungarian equivalent of Frantisek.] The only guilt of Frantisek was that he was a Jew, he had done nothing wrong. Before he was taken to the ghetto in Uzhgorod, and then to the concentration camp, Frantisek was a school boy, a last-year student of the grammar school. In the last days of his imprisonment in Buchenwald he could only stay in his bed. The dying young men were put on the upper-tier beds and they were not able to get up to even go to the toilet.

My brother was rescued by the American troops that came to the camp. He was taken to an American hospital where he stayed for almost two months. Frantisek had severe dystrophy and the doctors were afraid he was going to die, but he was young and overcame the disease. He was hoping to find somebody at home and refused to go elsewhere. So we met. My brother told me very little about his imprisonment in the camp. He wanted to forget it.

My brother stayed in Uzhgorod for a few months. I was hoping he would stay with me, but he decided otherwise. He didn’t want to live in the Soviet regime. Before the middle of 1946 it was possible to move elsewhere from Subcarpathia. Frantisek moved to Czechoslovakia and from there – to Australia. He had never obtained a Soviet passport and his departure was not documented.

In 1947 Soviet authorities began to oppress those who had relatives abroad [27], especially in capitalist countries. Those who corresponded with their relatives abroad were in the KGB records [28]. This was dangerous and might have resulted in being fired from work or even imprisonment for ridiculous charges of espionage.

I understood that they wanted to shield people from receiving information from abroad since the Soviet propaganda was constantly telling us that Soviet people had a better life and a better care from the state. They wrote in newspapers about capitalist countries that capitalists were squeezing workers out and threw them out into the streets, when they had no strength to go on. Of course, if correspondence had been allowed, Soviet citizens might have understood that this was not true.

My brother didn’t write me and I didn’t mention having relatives abroad. Even my daughters didn’t know about Frantisek. Of course, I would have corresponded with my brother, had I known where he was, but I didn’t even know that he was in Australia. I thought he lived in Czechoslovakia.

The Soviet regime began a fierce struggle against religion [29]. I wasn’t religious and it didn’t concern me, but many other Subcarpathians were religious and observed Jewish traditions. The authorities were closing synagogues and Christian churches. There was only one synagogue left in Uzhgorod – the synagogue of the Hasidim on the bank of the Uzh River. It was closed in the 1960s. The building was given to the town Philharmonic. Jews got together for a minyan in prayer houses secretly.

There were two survivors in our big family. My mother’s younger sister Magda returned from the work camp in Reichenbach. Her family perished. My mother’s sister Romola’s husband, Lajos Kubat, was in a work battalion during the war. He was also lucky to return home. Magda told him about his wife Romola and son Miklos who perished. Lajos’s parents, brothers and sisters perished in Auschwitz and he was alone like Magda. Lajos and Magda got married and moved to the USA. Lajos has passed away and Magda still lives in the USA; she is very old.

My father’s sister Iren perished in 1944 in the ghetto in Budapest [30] and her husband perished there, too. Their two daughters survived in the ghetto. They are still alive and live in Budapest now. The older daughter has two daughters, Janka and Eva, and the younger daughter has a son. We correspond with them and occasionally see each other.

I found the grave of my grandmother Roza Preusz, who died in 1939, in the Jewish cemetery in Uzhgorod. We had the names of members of our family who had perished in concentration camps – 15 of them in total – engraved on her gravestone.

I knew the family of my future wife before the war. Adel was just a child then. Her parents Maria and Janos Takacs lived nearby. They were Hungarians and lived in Slovakia. They were Catholic. They were poor and could hardly make ends meet. They had two children: older son Ernest and daughter Adel, born in 1929. They were born in a village. The family moved to Uzhgorod in the early 1930s.

When I returned to Uzhgorod Adel lived with her mother. Ernest moved to Czechoslovakia shortly after Uzhgorod was liberated and the father disappeared at the front. They had a very hard life and could hardly afford to buy wood in winter while I was living in an empty house. I had no idea about housekeeping, I had to go to work, and routinely issues regarding the house and my everyday life were becoming a problem. I couldn’t cook or wash and I had no time for this. I came home from work late and went to bed immediately.

Then somebody got to know that I was rarely at home and there was nobody else in the house and they began to steal furniture and other belongings. So I told Maria and her daughter to move in with me. ‘You won’t pay me for living here, vice versa, I will be giving money for food to you, and you will probably cook something for me, too.’ They moved in with me.

I was 22 and Adel was 16. We spent the evenings together. Maria and Adel were my family, or the illusion of a family, until Maria’s husband returned. The Americans had taken him in captivity, and he came to Uzhgorod in 1945. Janos and Maria decided to move to Czechoslovakia, where their son lived, in the town of Volkovce. He had gotten married and they had a baby.

When they began to pack, I understood that I couldn’t live without Adel and I proposed to her. We got married on 10th November 1945. We had a civil ceremony and then had a wedding dinner. My brother Frantisek was at the wedding. After the wedding Adel’s parents left.

The Jews of Uzhgorod were unhappy about my marrying a non-Jewish girl and the Catholics were angry with my wife who dared to marry a Jew. My wife and I ignored it. We were happy together and now, having lived 60 years together, we still love each other. We rarely visited her family. They treat me like a member of their family. I’ve never faced any prejudiced attitudes on their part.

Adel didn’t know a word in Russian. We spoke Hungarian or Czech at home, but Russian became a state language and it was necessary to know it. When my salary was not enough to make our living we lent a half of the house to Russian military men. Talking to their wives Adel picked up Russian. Adel didn’t work. I was raised so that a man had to bring money home and support the family. And the woman had to take care of the house. I insisted that Adel stayed at home. Our first daughter Judita, named after my deceased sister, was born in 1951. In 1954 our second daughter was born and I named her Adel after my beloved wife.

I began to work with Samuel Weiss. In 1945 he became deputy minister of the chemical industry. He gave me the task to complete an inventory of trophy chemical products in Uzhgorod and develop a proposal for their further use. This was my first job. I managed to find heating oil in underground containers that the Germans had stored for locomotives moving to the front. There were dozens of 60-ton containers there.

From the time when I studied in Budapest, I knew the recipe of the wheel lubricant and there was sufficient heating oil to make this grease. I made this proposal to make lubricant for the needs of the army and they asked me whether I could do it. I said I could. The timber factory supplied us with beech tar which was one of the components. Grease for wheels was our first product that we made for Ukraine.

I was authorized to establish production on the former saw mill that hadn’t operated since the early 1940s. We couldn’t start production of wheel grease for vehicles for lack of the necessary components. We started production of goods for schools: chalk and ink. Our factory was expanding and we were given another building where I arranged a soap factory. We started from making plain household soap from bone fat that was supplied from the meat factory. When we expanded production, we managed to arrange production of toilet soap. Besides, we started production of an ointment for scab.

I was manager of these two shops at our factory and in 1948 it expanded to set up a household chemistry plant and it was developing fast. I was appointed director of the plant. We were expanding our products and some time later this plant turned into an enterprise of all-Union significance.

I was looking for young, initiative people with a university degree. Only these factors were significant for me, not their nationality. Our employees had training at similar enterprises abroad. When our category was raised from 3 to 1, our employees began to earn significantly more money. [Editor’s note: In the USSR enterprises were given categories based on the number of employees and the function of an enterprise. The lowest was category 3 and the highest – category 1. The higher the category the higher salary its employees were paid]. I was trying to help them with all of their everyday problems, helping them to get a dwelling, built a kindergarten for the children and a family recreation camp.

From the time of my communist youth activities I believed the Soviet power to be the only regime that would give us freedom, justice and national equality. I joined the Party believing that it was my duty and that being a party member I would be able to do even more to help the Soviet power.

At first I didn’t face any anti-Semitism. I was given a responsible job, and I had support and was praised. When more people began to arrive in Subcarpathia from the USSR, anti-Semitism began to develop. I always wrote in my documents that I was a Jew. When I got my passport, they wrote there my name Neuman as ‘Noyman.’ [Editor’s note: The interviewee means that they put his name down in Cyrillic and according to the Russian phonetic rules.]

Once, the secretary of the regional party committee told me that it would be better for me and for all if I took my wife’s non-Jewish surname. Director of a big plant Stepan Takacs sounded better than Neuman, but although I was a devoted communist and loved my job, I replied that if this was a condition for me to continue my work I did not accept it. I was Neuman during the fascist regime and I survived, so why couldn’t I remain to be myself during the Soviet regime.

The secretary changed the subject of discussion and I thought the issue was closed, but then I began to feel pressure on me. I understood that this was because I was a Jew and they would try to remove me from this position. I became director of this plant because I started this production and was growing with the plant. Local Uzhgorod residents knew me and if they fired me, this might have caused a negative response in the town, but I had to do twice as much as a non-Jew to remain on the right track.

Then the fault finding began and they even blamed me that I didn’t perform my job and that I was not perspective. I was called to the ministry where I told them that if I had made mistakes let them point them out to me and help me to get to the right point, but they didn’t say anything concrete to me. Then I faced state anti-Semitism as an administrator. It was not demonstrated openly, but the ministry gave directions to all managers on which positions they should never employ Jews.

When in the 1970s Jews began to move to Israel, I began to face problems again. Every person moving abroad had to obtain references from their employers to get an exit visa. There were meetings where mud was poured over these people. I hated this. We issued references to our employees in ordinary work order and I signed them. They were not doing anything bad – the state allowed them to leave and they decided to go. The situation was changing and anti-Semitism was growing. Jews didn’t feel solid land under their feet and many decided to emigrate.

The district party committee called me to their office and blamed me that I was training personnel for Israel. Yes, good specialists were leaving and some of them had had training from our plant. Forty employees of our plant left. I signed references for their moving to Israel. The party authorities reprimanded me for this and I knew they were not going to calm down on this.

I didn’t consider departure for myself. Everything that was dear to me was here in Uzhgorod. I couldn’t leave my parents’ house and sell it for peanuts to somebody else. There are graves of my dear ones here and I’ve spent my best years here. I wasn’t going to leave, but I didn’t condemn those who decided to take the risk and change their life.

There was also routinely anti-Semitism during the Soviet regime. There was less of it in Uzhgorod than elsewhere in the USSR. Anti-Semitism was strong in Eastern Ukraine and other republics. I often had to go on business trips and the word ‘zhyd’ [kike] became customary to my ear. I heard it on trains, in hotels and public transportation in various towns of the USSR: Kiev, Moscow, Karaganda and Riga. I heard it wherever I went.

I wasn’t angry about it. I understood that people saying it did not have a decent education and were underdeveloped spiritually. My dear parents educated the feeling of self-dignity in me, and those people could not abuse or humiliate me. But this was surprising and raised a feeling of alert: this meant that not everything in the USSR was like the propaganda had told us.

The workers of my plant respected and liked me. For 16 years, 4 convocations, I was deputy of the town council. Employees of my plant nominated me there. I was trying to improve their living conditions and improve the infrastructure in our district. The plant constructed children’s playgrounds and a town park.

I tried to stay close to our employees, took part in sport contests and hiking tours. And when I took the first places it wasn’t because I was director. I didn’t have a car and though my position allowed me to have a car I rode a bicycle to work. Everyone in our family had a bicycle. When I could spend my weekend with the family we rode to the woods with the children and in winter we went skiing in the mountains. I always had short vacations. I was always impatient to go back to the plant. My wife spent the summers with the children at resorts of Subcarpathia or in the Crimea and I worked.

We celebrated Soviet holidays at home: 1st May, 7th November [31], Victory Day [32], Soviet Army Day [33], New Year. My wife always arranged eating parties and we invited my colleagues and friends. I believed that I had to blend with the society in which I lived. My wife supported me in everything. I still live having such a wife.

At that time hardly any directors of big enterprises lived to retire. As a rule, they died of infarctions living under constant stress and rush. There were numbers of issues to be resolved and these people had to realize every step they made. People were dying at the age of 40, 50. I also had two infarctions, but I think that I’ve survived thanks to the love and care of my Adel.

I was often sent to political studies. I finished a course of political education and an evening university course of Marxism-Leninism. This was mandatory for all managerial staff. After work I attended political classes and then at home I had to make notes and study the original sources. Unfortunately, there was little time left for the family and it made me feel sorry. I wanted to be the same father for my daughters as mine was to me.

Stalin’s death in March 1953 was a terrible disaster for those who had come from the USSR. I was surprised that they were grieving after a person they didn’t know. I thought Stalin’s death was natural – nobody lives an eternal life, and old people are dying whether they are leaders of the country or common pensioners.

I was a devoted communist and thought: Stalin died, but the Party was still there and nothing would change and the Party would go on the right course. Khrushchev’s [34] speech at the Twentieth Party Congress [35] confirmed this conviction of mine. Although Stalin was an idol of a few generations of Soviet people, the party managed to find out that he was a criminal and told the truth in public.

When in 1956 [36] the USSR troops invaded Hungary, and in 1968 Czechoslovakia [cf. Prague Spring] [37], I understood that this was a necessary step. We were taught that the USSR was exporting the revolution to all countries of the world and we believed that this was right and fair. In those countries the revolutionary gains were losing their strength and only the army could keep them in place. There were probably discussions before they led the troops there, but where the policy was losing the army was coming.

If the USSR had not brought the armies then, I believe the socialist countries would have split much earlier. At that time I had no doubts that this was a necessary measure to preserve the integrity of the socialist countries.

In the 1970s my cousin, my aunt Iren’s daughter, found me. We began to correspond and from her I heard that my brother lived in Australia and she gave me his address. My cousin and I decided to meet and I also invited my brother to this reunion. I understood that he would probably not be able to get an entry visa to the USSR and that it would be easier for him to get one to Hungary. It was easier for Subcarpathians than residents of other areas of the USSR to travel to Hungary.

However, since I was a party member and director of the plant, I had to obtain permits from the district party committee and the ministry. Formerly my personal files did not contain any information about my cousin or my brother and I made an attachment to my autobiography where I explained that I didn’t know their whereabouts or even whether they were alive and for this reason I hadn’t indicated their names previously. I obtained permits and went to Budapest.

This was a happy meeting and we were getting familiar with each other again. My brother told me about his life. Frantisek got the name of Frank Newman in Australia, he finished an Industrial College in Sydney and became a successful businessman.

My brother was married twice. His first wife was a Jewish girl whose parents moved from Germany in the early 1930s, when Hitler came to power there. They moved to Australia. In this marriage Frank had a daughter named Carole. His wife died shortly after childbirth. Some time later he married a woman who had moved to Australia from South America. They have three children in this marriage: Peter, Nelly and Frank.

We corresponded after we met. Of course, I knew that my letters were censored – this was a common practice at the time, but I avoided work or political issues. We wrote about our families and life.

In 1978 I was invited to Moscow, to the Soviet Union Ministry of Chemical Industry. I had a pass enabling me to go to the office of the minister of the USSR and to the central party committee without any prearrangement. The ministry called a collegium and said they had no claims against me as director of the plant, but since I was corresponding with my brother in Australia, a capitalist country, I could not hold this position.

Since our plant was an important enterprise for the whole Soviet Union we had a production plant for a ‘special period,’ i.e., in case of World War III we were to produce the substances mitigating the impact of radiation and anti-noise mastic to apply on the tank bottoms. They explained that since the plant had a plan of military significance its director had to be a reliable and tested person to be told secret information. But I didn’t know any particular secrets. Probably all countries in the world with armies also have production of similar substances, and regarding the production of detergents theirs are probably even better.

They told me to terminate correspondence with my brother and my cousin, but I said I was not going to stop being in touch with my brother. He survived in Buchenwald and there were just the two of us left. They told me to return my pass and that they were going to recommend me for another position of senior dispatcher at the plant.

My wife and I discussed this issue and decided to move to my brother in Australia. I wrote Frantisek and he replied that my decision made him happy and that he was waiting for us to come. We submitted or documents for departure, but they returned them to us. They explained to me that my request for departure was rejected and that I could resubmit my documents ten years later, after the term of the ‘plan of special secrecy’ expired.

I worked at the plant as senior dispatcher till my retirement. However, it was impossible to live on my pension and I had to continue to go to work after I retired. I did various jobs: transport arrangements and load circulation of the plant. I finally quit work in 2002, after 50 years of work records.

My daughters were growing up like all other Soviet children. They were pioneers [38] and Komsomol [39] members. They had excellent marks at school. Judit and Adel understood that they needed an education to make their way in life. Both daughters were registered as Slovaks. I had constantly faced anti-Semitism and didn’t want it to sadden their life.

After finishing school Judit entered the Faculty of Economics of Uzhgorod University. Adel went in for sports at school. She decided to go to study at the Kiev University of Physical Education and after school she moved to Kiev. Upon graduation Adel returned to Uzhgorod. In Uzhgorod she finished the English department of the Philological Faculty of Uzhgorod University.

They both work. Judit is chief economist of the power network department of the town, and Adel is a scientific employee dealing with the issues of rehabilitation of sportsmen. They are both married and have Ukrainian husbands. Judit’s husband, Miroslav Soskida, deals with the issues of recovery of the ozone medium. His scientific works were in a contest in Washington and now he has a job offer to work in Washington. Adel’s husband, Alexandr Bredikhin, works in television.

Judit has two children. Her son Stepan, born in 1976, moved to Israel after finishing school in Uzhgorod. Now his name is Itzhok. It’s the 7th year of my grandson’s service in the Israeli army. He defends the country that has become his homeland. I am proud of him and I am proud that a member of our family defends the holy land for all of us. Judit’s daughter Anita was born in 1985. She is a 1st-year student of Uzhgorod University. Adel has no children.

When perestroika [40] began in the USSR, I was happy about it. There are no everlasting regimes, there are to be changes. When freedom of speech and religion was allowed, when the ‘iron curtain’ [41], separating the USSR from the rest of the world for 70 years fell, when it became possible to communicate with people living beyond the USSR – this gave hopes for the best.

During perestroika I finally got an opportunity to meet with my brother. In 1989 my wife and I went to see him. Of course, I would not have been able to afford this trip. Now, after 58 years of work records my pension is 210 hrivna [about $ 40], and 40 hrivna of it [about $ 8] I get for 16 years of my deputy work. My brother paid for this trip.

We stayed there a few months and it was like a fairy tale. I met his wife and children and we became friends. We traveled across the country and we talked a lot. We had lived a long life apart from one another. We recalled our life before the war, our parents and talked about life after the war. We were sorry, when it was time for us to leave.

My brother kept telling me that I should move to Australia, but we were not quite comfortable with the climate in Australia. Besides, I’ve lived my life in Ukraine and there are my children and grandchildren, my friends and my memories – everything connecting me with my parents – here. However, we’ve been in touch with my brother. He’s visited here twice: once he came with his older daughter Carole. I hope he will visit us again. I would like to travel to Israel to see my grandson and the country, but I don’t think I will ever be able to afford it.

After the breakup of the USSR [in 1991] I was hoping for a better life in Ukraine. Our country is rich in mineral resources and has everything for a good wealthy life, but I don’t see any changes for the better in our country or in other former republics of the USSR. At least there are no national conflicts in Ukraine. But life here is far from good. Of course, a small group of people managed to get rich, but people have a very hard life. I cannot tell what is going to happen in the future, but I do not feel optimistic about the future.

There was a Jewish community established in Uzhgorod during perestroika. I am secretary of the community. I know a few languages and can maintain correspondence. At our request the Hungarian Orthodox community of Budapest sends us matzah for Pesach and provides assistance to the needy.

However, there is anti-Semitism in Subcarpathia again. The Subcarpathian newspaper ‘Serebrianaya Zemlia’ [Silver Land] for seven years has systematically published a series of very anti-Semitic articles under the common title ‘The Jewish issue.’

We wrote a letter to the chairman of local administration signed by Moshkovich, chairman of the Jewish community, Galpert, member of the board of the Jewish community, and me. In this letter we wrote that this title and the contents of the articles remind many residents of Subcarpathia of publications in fascist newspapers during the occupation of our region by Hungarian fascists from 1939 to1944. There is article 161 in the Criminal Code of Ukraine about the fomentation of national conflicts that is subject to the rule of law. The Jewish community of Uzhgorod asks to take measures to stop anti-Semitic publications in the newspaper ‘Serebrianaya Zemlia’ and punish the initiators of these publications. The administration replied that they would take measures, and if other articles of this kind should be published again they would take care of this issue.

After all we, Subcarpathian Jews, lived during the Holocaust and this makes us feel sick in our hearts. I don’t know when there will be an end to this, but we have to fight. We cannot put up with this kind of thing, we must not keep silent, or anti-Semites will raise their heads again.

Now our community takes care of the synagogue of Uzhgorod on Mukachevskaya Street, our only synagogue. Under the law on restitution of the community property we got the building of the synagogue back. All other former property of the community – the rabbi’s house, the prayer site, the educational facilities and the mikveh –these all were leased by the town authorities.

For example, there is a Christian store in the territory of the synagogue where they sell caskets and wreaths. It shouldn’t be near the synagogue. There are people living in some building and they keep livestock. Those coming to the synagogue have to cross the yard with geese and chickens.

We obtained a drawing of the synagogue facilities from the bureau, and our new rabbi is working on it. Of course, it would be easier to do this, if we had money, but when we get the properties back, we also need to repair and maintain them.

I am also trying to be of help to the community, though I am not religious. For me those middle age Jewish rules and traditions are not acceptable as yet. But I am a Jew and I will be helping Jews. I also work in the Hesed [42] of Uzhgorod, which was established in 1999. I am an instructor for tourism, mountaineering and skiing in Hesed. We go to the mountains in winter and in summer.

I know that I need to be healthy to do this and I try to keep healthy. Every morning I do exercises from 5 to 7am. I lift weights, go jogging and do push-ups. I have done it for many years. There has to be a system. I went skiing, when I was a child and now I go skiing too. My wife is also good at mountain skiing. I’ve taken the first place in slalom in my age group of over 60.

Of course, mountain skiing is expensive. We have no money for it and so I went to work at the mountain base on the Shcherbin Mountain. I install and repair equipment and do its maintenance. I do not get paid for this work, but I have a room with two beds and a bathroom, mountain skiing equipment and I can use the cable-car for free.

I believe that the most important for keeping in good health is a kind surrounding, a nice loving wife. One has to learn to enjoy it, avoid conflicts and make compromises. We often do not forgive our close ones for what we wouldn’t notice in people with whom we are not in such close relationships. A person needs many things: a wife, children, family and friends, a good place to live, a good book… One needs to enjoy the nature, read the books that one is interested in, listen to good music. This all makes the joys of our life.

There is not just joy. There is no joy where there has been no sadness. Everything has to be and then you will know the price of good things. If you stay at home all the time, you stop realizing how good it is at home, but when you return home cold and tired, you foretaste how good it is to come home. And you foretaste a good dinner that your wife has cooked for you and an evening with a book. Only when you know the good and the bad you can learn to appreciate the good. You also need to meet bad people in life, then you will appreciate good people and be happy to have had the opportunity to meet them.

Everything has to be in life. You cannot only wish for happiness, or you will not appreciate it. May there be everything in life, but more good. And also, we need to save our earth. We need not fight, we need to unite to save our little earth, so that we can all live on it.

Glossary:

[1] KuK (Kaiserlich und Königlich) army: The name 'Imperial and Royal' was used for the army of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, as well as for other state institutions of the Monarchy originated from the dual political system. Following the Compromise of 1867, which established the Dual Monarchy, Austrian emperor and Hungarian King Franz Joseph was the head of the state and also commander-in-chief of the army. Hence the name 'Imperial and Royal'.

[2] Russian Revolution of 1917: Revolution in which the tsarist regime was overthrown in the Russian Empire and, under Lenin, was replaced by the Bolshevik rule. The two phases of the Revolution were: February Revolution, which came about due to food and fuel shortages during World War I, and during which the tsar abdicated and a provisional government took over. The second phase took place in the form of a coup led by Lenin in October/November (October Revolution) and saw the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks.

[3] Hungarian Soviet Republic: The Hungarian Soviet Republic was the political regime in Hungary from 21st March 1919 until the beginning of August of the same year. It was also the second Soviet government in history, the first one being the one in Russia in 1917. The communist government nationalized industrial and commercial enterprises, and socialized housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions, and large landholdings. In an effort to secure its rule the government used arbitrary violence. Almost 600 executions were ordered by revolutionary tribunals and the government also resorted to violence to expropriate grain from peasants. Only the Red Guard, commonly referred to as "Lenin-boys," was organized to support the power by means of terror. The Republic eliminated old institutions and the administration, but due to the lack of resources the new structure prevailed only on paper. Mounting external pressure, along with growing discontent and resistance of the people, resulted in a loss of communist power. Budapest was occupied by the Romanian army on 6th August, putting an end to the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
[4] Subcarpathia (also known as Ruthenia, Russian and Ukrainian name Zakarpatie): Region situated on the border of the Carpathian Mountains with the Middle Danube lowland. The regional capitals are Uzhhorod, Berehovo, Mukachevo, Khust. It belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until World War I; and the Saint-Germain convention declared its annexation to Czechoslovakia in 1919. It is impossible to give exact historical statistics of the language and ethnic groups living in this geographical unit: the largest groups in the interwar period were Hungarians, Rusyns, Russians, Ukrainians, Czech and Slovaks. In addition there was also a considerable Jewish and Gypsy population. In accordance with the first Vienna Decision of 1938, the area of Subcarpathia mainly inhabited by Hungarians was ceded to Hungary. The rest of the region was proclaimed a new state called Carpathian Ukraine in 1939, with Khust as its capital, but it only existed for four and a half months, and was occupied by Hungary in March 1939. Subcarpathia was taken over by Soviet troops and local guerrillas in 1944. In 1945, Czechoslovakia ceded the area to the USSR and it gained the name Carpatho-Ukraine. The region became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1945. When Ukraine became independent in 1991, the region became an administrative region under the name of Transcarpathia.
[5] Orthodox communities: The traditionalist Jewish communities founded their own Orthodox organizations after the Universal Meeting in 1868-1869.They organized their life according to Judaist principles and opposed to assimilative aspirations. The community leaders were the rabbis. The statute of their communities was sanctioned by the king in 1871. In the western part of Hungary the communities of the German and Slovakian immigrants' descendants were formed according to the Western Orthodox principles. At the same time in the East, among the Jews of Galician origins the 'eastern' type of Orthodoxy was formed; there the Hassidism prevailed. In time the Western Orthodoxy also spread over to the eastern part of Hungary. In 1896, there were 294 Orthodox mother-communities and 1,001 subsidiary communities registered all over Hungary, mainly in Transylvania and in the north-eastern part of the country,. In 1930, the 136 mother-communities and 300 subsidiary communities made up 30.4 percent of all Hungarian Jews. This number increased to 535 Orthodox communities in 1944, including 242,059 believers (46 percent).
[6] Hasid: Follower of the Hasidic movement, a Jewish mystic movement founded in the 18th century that reacted against Talmudic learning and maintained that God's presence was in all of one's surroundings and that one should serve God in one's every deed and word. The movement provided spiritual hope and uplifted the common people. There were large branches of Hasidic movements and schools throughout Eastern Europe before World War II, each following the teachings of famous scholars and thinkers. Most had their own customs, rituals and life styles. Today there are substantial Hasidic communities in New York, London, Israel and Antwerp.
[7] Neolog Jewry: Following a Congress in 1868/69 in Budapest, where the Jewish community was supposed to discuss several issues on which the opinion of the traditionalists and the modernizers differed and which aimed at uniting Hungarian Jews, Hungarian Jewry was officially split into two (later three) communities, which all built up their own national community network. The Neologs were the modernizers, who opposed the Orthodox on various questions. The third group, the sop-called Status Quo Ante advocated that the Jewish community was maintained the same as before the 1868/69 Congress.

[8] First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938): The First Czechoslovak Republic was created after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy following World War I. The union of the Czech lands and Slovakia was officially proclaimed in Prague in 1918, and formally recognized by the Treaty of St. Germain in 1919. Ruthenia was added by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. Czechoslovakia inherited the greater part of the industries of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the new government carried out an extensive land reform, as a result of which the living conditions of the peasantry increasingly improved. However, the constitution of 1920 set up a highly centralized state and failed to take into account the issue of national minorities, and thus internal political life was dominated by the struggle of national minorities (especially the Hungarians and the Germans) against Czech rule. In foreign policy Czechoslovakia kept close contacts with France and initiated the foundation of the Little Entente in 1921.

[9] Trianon Peace Treaty: Trianon is a palace in Versailles where, as part of the Paris Peace Conference, the peace treaty was signed with Hungary on 4th June 1920. It was the official end of World War I for the countries concerned. The Trianon Peace Treaty validated the annexation of huge parts of pre-war Hungary by the states of Austria (the province of Burgenland) and Romania (Transylvania, and parts of Eastern Hungary). The northern part of pre-war Hungary was attached to the newly created Czechoslovak state (Slovakia and Subcarpathia) while Croatia-Slavonia as well as parts of Southern Hungary (Vojvodina, Baranja, Medjumurje and Prekmurje) were to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians (later Yugoslavia). Hungary lost 67.3% of its pre-war territory, including huge areas populated mostly or mainly by Hungarians, and 58.4% of its population. As a result approximately one third of the Hungarians became an - often oppressed - ethnic minority in some of the predominantly hostile neighboring countries. Trianon became the major point of reference of interwar nationalistic and anti-Semitic Hungarian regimes.

[10] Masaryk, Tomas Garrigue (1850-1937): Czechoslovak political leader and philosopher and chief founder of the First Czechoslovak Republic. He founded the Czech People's Party in 1900, which strove for Czech independence within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, for the protection of minorities and the unity of Czechs and Slovaks. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918, Masaryk became the first president of Czechoslovakia. He was reelected in 1920, 1927, and 1934. Among the first acts of his government was an extensive land reform. He steered a moderate course on such sensitive issues as the status of minorities, especially the Slovaks and Germans, and the relations between the church and the state. Masaryk resigned in 1935 and Edvard Benes, his former foreign minister, succeeded him.

[11] Betar: Brith Trumpledor (Hebrew) meaning Trumpledor Society; right-wing Revisionist Jewish youth movement. It was founded in 1923 in Riga by Vladimir Jabotinsky, in memory of J. Trumpledor, one of the first fighters to be killed in Palestine, and the fortress Betar, which was heroically defended for many months during the Bar Kohba uprising. Its aim was to propagate the program of the revisionists and prepare young people to fight and live in Palestine. It organized emigration through both legal and illegal channels. It was a paramilitary organization; its members wore uniforms. They supported the idea to create a Jewish legion in order to liberate Palestine. From 1936-39 the popularity of Betar diminished. During WWII many of its members formed guerrilla groups.

[12] Hitler's rise to power: In the German parliamentary elections in January 1933, the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) won one-third of the votes. On 30th January 1933 the German president swore in Adolf Hitler, the party's leader, as chancellor. On 27th February 1933 the building of the Reichstag (the parliament) in Berlin was burned down. The government laid the blame with the Bulgarian communists, and a show trial was staged. This served as the pretext for ushering in a state of emergency and holding a re-election. It was won by the NSDAP, which gained 44% of the votes, and following the cancellation of the communists' votes it commanded over half of the mandates. The new Reichstag passed an extraordinary resolution granting the government special legislative powers and waiving the constitution for 4 years. This enabled the implementation of a series of moves that laid the foundations of the totalitarian state: all parties other than the NSDAP were dissolved, key state offices were filled by party luminaries, and the political police and the apparatus of terror swiftly developed.

[13] Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: Bohemia and Moravia were occupied by the Germans and transformed into a German Protectorate in March 1939, after Slovakia declared its independence. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was placed under the supervision of the Reich protector, Konstantin von Neurath. The Gestapo assumed police authority. Jews were dismissed from civil service and placed in an extralegal position. In the fall of 1941, the Reich adopted a more radical policy in the Protectorate. The Gestapo became very active in arrests and executions. The deportation of Jews to concentration camps was organized, and Terezin/Theresienstadt was turned into a ghetto for Jewish families. During the existence of the Protectorate the Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia was virtually annihilated. After World War II the pre-1938 boundaries were restored, and most of the German-speaking population was expelled.

[14] Anti-Jewish laws in Hungary: Following similar legislation in Nazi Germany, Hungary enacted three Jewish laws in 1938, 1939 and 1941. The first law restricted the number of Jews in industrial and commercial enterprises, banks and in certain occupations, such as legal, medical and engineering professions, and journalism to 20% of the total number. This law defined Jews on the basis of their religion, so those who converted before the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, as well as those who fought in World War I, and their widows and orphans were exempted from the law. The second Jewish law introduced further restrictions, limiting the number of Jews in the above fields to 6%, prohibiting the employment of Jews completely in certain professions such as high school and university teaching, civil and municipal services, etc. It also forbade Jews to buy or sell land and so forth. This law already defined Jews on more racial grounds in that it regarded baptized children that had at least one non-converted Jewish parent as Jewish. The third Jewish law prohibited intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews, and defined anyone who had at least one Jewish grandparent as Jewish.

[15] Levente movement: Para-military youth organization in Hungary from 1928-1944, established with the aim of facilitating religious and national education as well as physical training. Boys between the age of 12 and 21 were eligible if they did not attend a school providing regular physical training, or did not join the army. Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Hungary to enforce the general obligations related to national defense, the Levente movement aimed at its substitution as well, as its members not only participated in sports activities and marches during weekends, but also practiced the use of weapons, under the guidance of demobilized officers on actual service or reserve officers. (The Law no. II of 1939 on National Defense made compulsory the national defense education and the joining of the movement.) (Source: Ignac Romsics: Magyarorszag tortenete a XX. szazadban/The History of Hungary in the 20th Century, Budapest, Osiris Publishing House, 2002, p. 181-182.)

[16] Gulag: The Soviet system of forced labor camps in the remote regions of Siberia and the Far North, which was first established in 1919. However, it was not until the early 1930s that there was a significant number of inmates in the camps. By 1934 the Gulag, or the Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps, then under the Cheka's successor organization the NKVD, had several million inmates. The prisoners included murderers, thieves, and other common criminals, along with political and religious dissenters. The Gulag camps made significant contributions to the Soviet economy during the rule of Stalin. Conditions in the camps were extremely harsh. After Stalin died in 1953, the population of the camps was reduced significantly, and conditions for the inmates improved somewhat.

[17] Residence permit: The Soviet authorities restricted freedom of travel within the USSR through the residence permit and kept everybody's whereabouts under control. Every individual in the USSR needed residential registration; this was a stamp in the passport giving the permanent address of the individual. It was impossible to find a job, or even to travel within the country, without such a stamp. In order to register at somebody else's apartment one had to be a close relative and if each resident of the apartment had at least 8 square meters to themselves.

[18] Eichmann, Adolf (1906-1962): Nazi war criminal, one of the organizers of mass genocide of Jews. Since 1932 member of the Nazi party and SS, since 1934 an employee of the race and resettlement departments of the RSHA (Main Security Office of the Reich), after the "Anschluss" of Austria headed the Headquarters for the Emigration of Jews in Vienna, later organized the emigration of Jews in Czechoslovakia and, since 1939, in Berlin. Since December 1939 he was the head of the Departments for the Resettlement of Poles and Jews from lands incorporated into the Reich. Since mid-1941, as the Head of the Branch IV B 4 Gestapo RSHA, he coordinated the plan of the extermination of Jews, organized and carried out the deportations of millions of Jews to death camps. After the war he was imprisoned in an American camp, he managed to escape and hid in Germany, Italy and Argentina. In 1960 he was captured by the Israeli secret service in Buenos Aires. After a process which took several months, he was sentenced to death and executed. Eichmann's trial initiated a great discussion about the causes and the carrying out of the Shoah.

[19] Great Patriotic War: On 22nd June 1941 at 5 o'clock in the morning Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. This was the beginning of the so-called Great Patriotic War. The German blitzkrieg, known as Operation Barbarossa, nearly succeeded in breaking the Soviet Union in the months that followed. Caught unprepared, the Soviet forces lost whole armies and vast quantities of equipment to the German onslaught in the first weeks of the war. By November 1941 the German army had seized the Ukrainian Republic, besieged Leningrad, the Soviet Union's second largest city, and threatened Moscow itself. The war ended for the Soviet Union on 9th May 1945.

[20] Benes, Edvard (1884-1948): Czechoslovak politician and president from 1935-38 and 1946-48. He was a follower of T. G. Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, and the idea of Czechoslovakism, and later Masaryk's right-hand man. After World War I he represented Czechoslovakia at the Paris Peace Conference. He was Foreign Minister (1918-1935) and Prime Minister (1921-1922) of the new Czechoslovak state and became president after Masaryk retired in 1935. The Czechoslovak alliance with France and the creation of the Little Entente (Czechoslovak, Romanian and Yugoslav alliance against Hungarian revisionism and the restoration of the Habsburgs) were essentially his work. After the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia by the Munich Pact (1938) he resigned and went into exile. Returning to Prague in 1945, he was confirmed in office and was reelected president in 1946. After the communist coup in February 1948 he resigned in June on the grounds of illness, refusing to sign the new constitution.

[21] Army of General Svoboda: During World War II General Ludvik Svoboda (1895-1979) commanded Czechoslovak troops under Soviet military leadership, which took part in liberating Eastern Slovakia. After the war Svoboda became minister of defense (1945-1950) and then President of Czechoslovakia (1968-1975).

[22] Buchenwald: One of the largest concentration camps in Germany, located five miles north of the city of Weimar. It was founded on 16th July, 1937 and liberated on 11th April, 1945. During its existence 238,980 prisoners from 30 countries passed through Buchenwald. Of those, 43,045 were killed.

[23] Bergen-Belsen: Concentration camp located in northern Germany. Bergen-Belsen was established in April 1943 as a detention camp for prisoners who were to be exchanged with Germans imprisoned in Allied countries. Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British army on 15th April, 1945. The soldiers were shocked at what they found, including 60,000 prisoners in the camp, many on the brink of death, and thousands of unburied bodies lying about. (Source: Rozett R. - Spector S.: Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Facts on File, G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House Ltd. 2000, pg. 139 -141)

[24] Transylvania: Geographical and historical region belonging to Hungary until 1918-19, then ceded to Romania. Its area covers 103,000 sq.km between the Carpathian Mountains and the present-day Hungarian and Serbian borders. It became a Roman province in the 2nd century (AD) terminating the Dacian Kingdom. After the Roman withdrawal it was overrun, between the 3rd and 10th centuries, by the Goths, the Huns, the Gepidae, the Avars and the Slavs. Hungarian tribes first entered the region in the 5th century, but they did not fully control it until 1003, when King Stephen I placed it under jurisdiction of the Hungarian Crown. Later, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Germans, called Saxons (then and now), also arrived while Romanians, called Vlachs or Walachians, were there by that time too, although the exact date of their appearance is disputed. As a result of the Turkish conquest, Hungary was divided into 3 sections: West Hungary, under Habsburg rule, central Hungary, under Turkish rule, and semi-independent Transylvania (as a Principality), where Austrian and Turkish influences competed for supremacy for nearly two centuries. With the defeat of the Turkish Transylvania gradually came under Habsburg rule, and due to the Compromise of 1867 it became an integral part of Hungary again. In line with other huge territorial losses fixed in the Treaty of Trianon (1920), Transylvania was formally ceded to Romania by Hungary. For a short period during WWII it was returned to Hungary but was ceded to Romania once again after the war. Many of the Saxons of Transylvania fled to Germany before the arrival of the Soviet army, and more followed after the fall of the Communist government in 1989. In 1920, the population of Erdély was 5,200,000, of which 3 million were Romanian, 1,400,000 Hungarian (26%), 510,000 German and 180,000 Jewish. In 2002, however, the percentage of Hungarians was only 19.6% and the German and Jewish population decreased to several thousand. Despite the decrease of the Hungarian, German and Jewish element, Transylvania still preserves some of its multiethnic and multi-confessional tradition.

[25] Hungarian era (1940-1944): The expression 'Hungarian era' refers to the period between 30th August 1940 and 15th October 1944 in Transylvania. As a result of the Trianon Peace Treaty in 1920, the eastern part of Hungary (Maramures, Partium, Banat, Transylvania) was annexed to Romania. Two million inhabitants of Hungarian nationality came under Romanian rule. In the summer of 1940, under pressure from Berlin and Rome, the Romanian government agreed to return Northern Transylvania, where the majority of the Hungarians lived, to Hungary. The anti-Jewish laws introduced in 1938 and 1939 in Hungary were also applied in Northern Transylvania. Following the German occupation of Hungary on 19th March 1944, Jews from Northern Transylvania were deported and killed in concentration camps along with Jews from all over Hungary except for Budapest. Northern Transylvania belonged to Hungary until the fall of 1944, when the Soviet troops entered and introduced a regime of military administration that sustained local autonomy. The military administration ended on March 1945, when the Romanian administration was reintroduced in all the Western territories lost in 1940 - as a reward for the fact that Romania formed the first communist-led government in the region.

[26] Party Schools: They were established after the Revolution of 1917, in different levels, with the purpose of training communist cadres and activists. Subjects such as 'scientific socialism' (Marxist-Leninist Philosophy) and 'political economics' besides various other political disciplines were taught there.

[27] Keep in touch with relatives abroad: The authorities could arrest an individual corresponding with his/her relatives abroad and charge him/her with espionage, send them to concentration camp or even sentence them to death.
[28] KGB: The KGB or Committee for State Security was the main Soviet external security and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police agency from 1954 to 1991.
[29] Struggle against religion: The 1930s was a time of anti-religion struggle in the USSR. In those years it was not safe to go to synagogue or to church. Places of worship, statues of saints, etc. were removed; rabbis, Orthodox and Roman Catholic priests disappeared behind KGB walls.

[30] Budapest Ghetto: An order issued on 29th November 1944 required all Jews living in Budapest to move into the ghetto by 5th December 1944. The last ghetto in Europe, it consisted of 162 buildings in the central district of Pest (East side of the Danube). Some 75,000 people were crowded into the area with an average of 14 people per room. The quarter was fenced in with wooden planks and had four entrances, although those living inside were forbidden to come out, while others were forbidden to go in. There was also a curfew from 4pm. Its head administrator was Miksa Domonkos, a reservist captain, and leader of the Jewish Council (Judenrat). Dressed in uniform, he was able to prevail against the Nazis and the police many times through his commanding presence. By the time the ghetto was liberated on 18th January 1945, approx. 5,000 people had died there due to cold weather, starvation, bombing and the intrusion of Arrow Cross commandos.

[31] October Revolution Day: October 25 (according to the old calendar), 1917 went down in history as victory day for the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia. This is the most significant date in the history of the USSR. Today the anniversary is celebrated as 'Day of Accord and Reconciliation' on November 7.

[32] Victory Day in Russia (9th May): National holiday to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II and honor the Soviets who died in the war.

[33] Soviet Army Day: The Russian imperial army and navy disintegrated after the outbreak of the Revolution of 1917, so the Council of the People's Commissars created the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army on a voluntary basis. The first units distinguished themselves against the Germans on February 23, 1918. This day became the 'Day of the Soviet Army' and is nowadays celebrated as 'Army Day'.

[34] Khrushchev, Nikita (1894-1971): Soviet communist leader. After Stalin's death in 1953, he became first secretary of the Central Committee, in effect the head of the Communist Party of the USSR. In 1956, during the 20th Party Congress, Khrushchev took an unprecedented step and denounced Stalin and his methods. He was deposed as premier and party head in October 1964. In 1966 he was dropped from the Party's Central Committee.

[35] Twentieth Party Congress: At the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956 Khrushchev publicly debunked the cult of Stalin and lifted the veil of secrecy from what had happened in the USSR during Stalin's leadership.

[36] 1956: It designates the Revolution, which started on 23rd October 1956 against Soviet rule and the communists in Hungary. It was started by student and worker demonstrations in Budapest and began with the destruction of Stalin's gigantic statue. Moderate communist leader Imre Nagy was appointed as prime minister and he promised reform and democratization. The Soviet Union withdrew its troops which had been stationed in Hungary since the end of World War II, but they returned after Nagy's declaration that Hungary would pull out of the Warsaw Pact to pursue a policy of neutrality. The Soviet army put an end to the uprising on 4th November, and mass repression and arrests began. About 200,000 Hungarians fled from the country. Nagy and a number of his supporters were executed. Until 1989 and the fall of the communist regime, the Revolution of 1956 was officially considered a counter-revolution.

[37] Prague Spring: A period of democratic reforms in Czechoslovakia, from January to August 1968. Reformatory politicians were secretly elected to leading functions of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC). Josef Smrkovsky became president of the National Assembly, and Oldrich Cernik became the Prime Minister. Connected with the reformist efforts was also an important figure on the Czechoslovak political scene, Alexander Dubcek, General Secretary of the KSC Central Committee (UV KSC). In April 1968 the UV KSC adopted the party's Action Program, which was meant to show the new path to socialism. It promised fundamental economic and political reforms. On 21st March 1968, at a meeting of representatives of the USSR, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany and Czechoslovakia in Dresden, Germany, the Czechoslovaks were notified that the course of events in their country was not to the liking of the remaining conference participants, and that they should implement appropriate measures. In July 1968 a meeting in Warsaw took place, where the reformist efforts in Czechoslovakia were designated as "counter-revolutionary." The invasion of the USSR and Warsaw Pact armed forces on the night of 20th August 1968, and the signing of the so-called Moscow Protocol ended the process of democratization, and the Normalization period began.

[38] All-Union pioneer organization: A communist organization for teenagers between 10 and 15 years old (cf: boy-/ girlscouts in the US). The organization aimed at educating the young generation in accordance with the communist ideals, preparing pioneers to become members of the Komsomol and later the Communist Party. In the Soviet Union, all teenagers were pioneers.

[39] Komsomol: Communist youth political organization created in 1918. The task of the Komsomol was to spread the ideas of communism and involve the worker and peasant youth in building the Soviet Union. The Komsomol also aimed at giving a communist upbringing by involving the worker youth in the political struggle, supplemented by theoretical education. The Komsomol was more popular than the Communist Party because with its aim of education people could accept uninitiated young proletarians, whereas party members had to have at least a minimal political qualification.

[40] Perestroika (Russian for restructuring): Soviet economic and social policy of the late 1980s, associated with the name of Soviet politician Mikhail Gorbachev. The term designated the attempts to transform the stagnant, inefficient command economy of the Soviet Union into a decentralized, market-oriented economy. Industrial managers and local government and party officials were granted greater autonomy, and open elections were introduced in an attempt to democratize the Communist Party organization. By 1991, perestroika was declining and was soon eclipsed by the dissolution of the USSR.

[41] Iron Curtain: A term popularized by Sir Winston Churchill in a speech in 1946. He used it to designate the Soviet Union's consolidation of its grip over Eastern Europe. The phrase denoted the separation of East and West during the Cold War, which placed the totalitarian states of the Soviet bloc behind an 'Iron Curtain'. The fall of the Iron Curtain corresponds to the period of perestroika in the former Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, and the democratization of Eastern Europe beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[42] Hesed: Meaning care and mercy in Hebrew, Hesed stands for the charity organization founded by Amos Avgar in the early 20th century. Supported by Claims Conference and Joint Hesed helps for Jews in need to have a decent life despite hard economic conditions and encourages development of their self-identity. Hesed provides a number of services aimed at supporting the needs of all, and particularly elderly members of the society. The major social services include: work in the center facilities (information, advertisement of the center activities, foreign ties and free lease of medical equipment); services at homes (care and help at home, food products delivery, delivery of hot meals, minor repairs); work in the community (clubs, meals together, day-time polyclinic, medical and legal consultations); service for volunteers (training programs). The Hesed centers have inspired a real revolution in the Jewish life in the FSU countries. People have seen and sensed the rebirth of the Jewish traditions of humanism. Currently over eighty Hesed centers exist in the FSU countries. Their activities cover the Jewish population of over eight hundred settlements.