The Polak family with friends

This photo was taken in 1933 in Kokava nad Rimavicou. In the upper row on the left is Uncle Pavel Polak. I don’t know who the lady beside him is, standing beside her is Uncle Ernest Polak. In the bottom row, from the left, is the pharmacist Mr. Blech with his wife, and sitting on the right is Mr. Grauner. I don’t recognize the people in the middle.

In the Polak family, the oldest of my mother’s siblings was Eugen, who was probably born in 1894. He died right after World War I, in 1922, of bone tuberculosis. He was a more or less active writer; a poetry collection of his has been found. The next in line was Melania, who was born in 1896; they killed her in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. Next was Ernest, who was born in 1902. He was a pharmacist, and died in a concentration camp. In 1904 my mother was born, then there was another brother of hers, Pavel, who was probably born in 1906, and was a businessman. He died in 1935 I think, of quick pneumonia. The youngest was Edita. Born in 1910, she perished in a concentration camp.