Valeria Bachnerova with her friends

Valeria Bachnerova with her friends

In this photograph is my sister Vali (Valeria Bachnerova). I don't remember the names of her friends anymore. The photo was taken in Topolcany, in the 1930s. I unfortunately don't know who took it. All of my siblings, aside from me, had only a basic education and worked as tradespeople. My older siblings Dezider, Leo, Ela, Armin and Marcel attended Hungarian elementary school. Vali, I, Marta and the twins already attended Slovak elementary school. So at home we all spoke Slovak and Hungarian, but also German. Jewish families are usually multilingual. In an effort to save herself from the deportations, Vali married a Jewish boy from Topolcany, Max Schlessinger. Unfortunately they didn't manage to survive, they were murdered in Kremnicka. I've got to say that Valeria was very pretty. She was even pronounced Miss Topolcany.
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