Johanna Sternova

This is a portrait of my grandmother Johanna Sternova, nee Brodyova. The photo was taken in 1923. My grandmother comes from Hlohovec, Western Slovakia, and my grandfather Helmut Stern was born in Opava, Moravia, but the whole family lived in Humenne, Eastern Slovakia. My grandmother was called Janka in the family. My grandmother's family was one of the oldest families of Hlohovec. Hlohovec is a small town some 50 kilometers from Bratislava. Its Jewish community dates back to medieval times. Before the war some 1,000 Jews lived in Hlohovec. My great-grandmother, Sofia Brodyova, nee Quitt, was born in 1863 and died in 1923. Her husband was Jakob Brody [1861-1932], who, as far as I know, owned a pub in Hlohovec. Their children were Jeno, Katy, Bela, Viliam, Melania, Henrich, Ignac, Marcus and my grandmother Janka. An interesting fact was that two Brody siblings, Janka Brodyova and Viliam Brody married two siblings of the Stern family in a mutual wedding. Viliam married Adriana and Janka married my grandfather Helmut.