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My husband was from a devout family from Presov. Their name was Meisel, but afterwards he then changed his name to Ambra. The name was changed in a curious fashion. His younger brother, Imrich Meisel, was seriously injured at the beginning of the war. He was run over by a motorcycle. As soon as he’d barely recovered, the deportations began. So that he wouldn’t be taken away, they arranged Aryan papers for him. In the archive they found the birth certificate of a certain Ambra who’d fallen at the front. Based on that birth certificate, they arranged false papers for him. He then survived the entire war as Imrich Ambra in Horne Srnie. Right after the war, my husband took the same name as his brother.
My husband was very intelligent and educated. He loved classical music, though he was from a simple family. His father didn’t know Latin script, and knew how to write only in Hebrew. He worked as a shoemaker. My husband was very hard-working and fit in at my father’s pharmacy, because he’d also graduated from pharmacy. Before the war he’d begun studying chemical engineering, but after a half year he had to stop. They recognized some of his exams, and he continued with his studies in Brno, in pharmacy.
My husband was very intelligent and educated. He loved classical music, though he was from a simple family. His father didn’t know Latin script, and knew how to write only in Hebrew. He worked as a shoemaker. My husband was very hard-working and fit in at my father’s pharmacy, because he’d also graduated from pharmacy. Before the war he’d begun studying chemical engineering, but after a half year he had to stop. They recognized some of his exams, and he continued with his studies in Brno, in pharmacy.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Heda Ambrova