Vilhelm Klein in Czechoslovak army

Vilhelm Klein in Czechoslovak army

This is my husband Vilhelm Klein in the uniform of Czechoslovak army. He served in the military in 1947. We were married on February 15, 1948, in Kralovsky Chlmec. There was still a small community there, and I recall that the rabbi's name was Katz. Vilhelm and I lived in Pavelovo until 1971. I worked as an agricultural technician for the state. We earned a living from our own land: corn, wheat, vegetables, and we had cows. Altogether we had seven hectares of land, and we spent all our spare time working the land. We had a man who worked for us. The farm was collectivized in 1957, but Vilhelm managed to get them to leave us a garden, which we continued to work. Vilhelm always went to synagogue. Our family was Orthodox; all the families were Orthodox in the small villages. I have two boys. Arnold was born in 1950 and Pavel was born in 1953. Both of my sons had a brit milah and bar mitzvah. They married before they left the country. Both of my boys had Jewish weddings and married under a chuppah, but this was not done publicly. It was done in secret. They met their future wives in the Jewish youth club. Both emigrated to America. My sons are named for my brothers. We were deported in April 1944 by the Hungarian police, not the Germans. Everyone from my town was taken to Sátgoraljújhely, and from there we were deported. I was with my father's mother, who was deaf, my mother and my two little brothers, Arnold and Pavel.
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