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I've got a couple of awards for my lifelong successes and resolve to achieve something. The last time was on 1st January 2006, on the occasion of the national holiday celebrating the creation of the Slovak Republic. Ivan Gasparovic [19], our president, gave me the Milan Rastislav Stefanik Cross [The Milan Rastislav Stefanik Cross is awarded to citizens of the Slovak Republic who have risked their lives to defend the Slovak Republic and save human lives or significant material values. It is awarded by the president of the Slovak Republic upon nomination by the government. It was awarded to General-Major Oto Wagner in 2006 – Editor's note]. It's a state award of the order of Milan Rastislav Stefanik for merit and saving human lives while risking one's own. The Central Council of the Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters nominated me for it. I value equally an award from Austria, from the president of the Austrian Republic. It's an award for merit for the Austrian Republic, which I was given at the Austrian embassy, commissioned by the president of Austria.
We, the Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters, used to have a very good relationship with the Communists. Now, when the government is oriented towards the right, and groups itself mostly with rightists, that relationship is not as ideal [during 1998 – 2006 (thus also during the time of this interview), a right-wing government was in power in Slovakia. After the 2006 parliamentary elections, the situation changed. Currently, leftists have a parliamentary majority in the government of the Slovak Republic – Editor's note]. I attend all sorts of receptions – Chinese, Austrian, German. I meet our ministers there, we say hello, exchange a few words, but that's all. I was always oriented towards the left, and don't see it as being very rosy right now. Now I've for example found out, Janek Langos [20] is a friend of mine, and he told me that they've got two thousand names of former Aryanizers [Aryanization: the transfer of Jewish stores, businesses, companies, etc. to the ownership of another, non-Jewish person – the Aryanizer – Editor’s note]. And I said: "Janek, but most of these people aren't alive anymore." "That doesn't matter, their children and grandchildren should know that their parents and grandparents Aryanized Jewish property." And that's supposed to be normally published like the StB records [21, 22]. I'm assuming it'll be quite unpleasant for the children and grandchildren, when they find out that their grandfather Aryanized Jewish property. I wouldn't publish it. But I don't have any influence over it. It'll just cause useless friction again.
The last few years I've been lecturing often. At one lecture, at the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities, where there were about 200 people, mostly people that had been in concentration camps as children, I said: "We can't be angry at Germans, because it's not the fault of today's generation that their fathers and grandfathers committed such horrid things." That's what I said there, and they were all Jews there. And they weren't against it. No took issue with it. You know, we can't be angry with one young German because his grandfather was, let's say, a member of the SS and murdered people. It's not the fault of today's generation. But I do think that every school should visit a concentration camp at least once, it doesn't matter which one. Let those young people see what atrocities were committed, what war, hunger and torture are.
I was invited to one school, and was asked to tell students that were going to be graduating something about the Slovak National Uprising – as a former participant and the vice-president of the Central Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters. So I organized a talk there, and gave a lecture about the Slovak National Uprising and the Holocaust. That the Slovak National Uprising has been recorded in the history of the Slovak nation with a gold pen. Because with the help of the Slovak National Uprising, Slovakia as such was included with the victorious countries, and not with the defeated Fascist countries. So I spoke about it, and when I was finished, one graduate stood up and said: "Sir, please, I have one question." I said: "Yes, what is it?" "You say that you fought in the Slovak National Uprising, that you were the head of a recon unit, and that you were wounded and captured. You were dragged off to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Upper Austria." I said: "Yes." "So could you tell me please, what did you do in that camp all day?" This means I can't be angry with him, at that boy. They didn't study anything at all about the Holocaust and the concentration camps. They didn't know anything at all. They just knew the bare outline of the uprising, otherwise nothing. That's why I'm trying to tell this young generation what the uprising was, what the Holocaust was, and so on. So that they'll have at least some sort of a foundation. If their parents and teachers didn't tell them about it, or if they weren't interested in finding out about it, whether from books, or from magazines, I at least tell them about the past like this, orally.
Not just the Holocaust is left out of the school curriculum, but neither do they for example teach that Czechoslovakia was from the year 1918 [23] a multi-ethnic state. After all, there were Jews living here, there were Germans and Hungarians living here, and everyone got along. Why, Bratislava and lots of other places in Slovakia were trilingual. That was something normal, that families spoke Slovak, Hungarian and German amongst themselves. Those of my generation that were born in Bratislava or lived here, all of us spoke Slovak, German and Hungarian. When as children we played soccer and similar games, there were Germans and Jews there, and no one cared about nationality. There weren't any problems; everyone was first and foremost a human being. There wasn't any anti-Semitism here. During the time of the Slovak State [24] these kinds of comments already existed. There was for example anti-Jewish propaganda in the newspapers. Suddenly things, that before people had looked at normally, changed. They began to paint Jewish stars on windows of shops owned by Jews, and so on. Finally it culminated in the persecution of Jews. It was all artificially created by the Fascist-Catholic government of the time. Yes, these are facts that are known today, but no one talks about them. And it's also my obligation to educate people, and mainly the young generation, about it and tell them how it was. So that what took place during the Holocaust and the Slovak National Uprising is never forgotten. Mainly, so that these tragic events and atrocities are never repeated.
We, the Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters, used to have a very good relationship with the Communists. Now, when the government is oriented towards the right, and groups itself mostly with rightists, that relationship is not as ideal [during 1998 – 2006 (thus also during the time of this interview), a right-wing government was in power in Slovakia. After the 2006 parliamentary elections, the situation changed. Currently, leftists have a parliamentary majority in the government of the Slovak Republic – Editor's note]. I attend all sorts of receptions – Chinese, Austrian, German. I meet our ministers there, we say hello, exchange a few words, but that's all. I was always oriented towards the left, and don't see it as being very rosy right now. Now I've for example found out, Janek Langos [20] is a friend of mine, and he told me that they've got two thousand names of former Aryanizers [Aryanization: the transfer of Jewish stores, businesses, companies, etc. to the ownership of another, non-Jewish person – the Aryanizer – Editor’s note]. And I said: "Janek, but most of these people aren't alive anymore." "That doesn't matter, their children and grandchildren should know that their parents and grandparents Aryanized Jewish property." And that's supposed to be normally published like the StB records [21, 22]. I'm assuming it'll be quite unpleasant for the children and grandchildren, when they find out that their grandfather Aryanized Jewish property. I wouldn't publish it. But I don't have any influence over it. It'll just cause useless friction again.
The last few years I've been lecturing often. At one lecture, at the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities, where there were about 200 people, mostly people that had been in concentration camps as children, I said: "We can't be angry at Germans, because it's not the fault of today's generation that their fathers and grandfathers committed such horrid things." That's what I said there, and they were all Jews there. And they weren't against it. No took issue with it. You know, we can't be angry with one young German because his grandfather was, let's say, a member of the SS and murdered people. It's not the fault of today's generation. But I do think that every school should visit a concentration camp at least once, it doesn't matter which one. Let those young people see what atrocities were committed, what war, hunger and torture are.
I was invited to one school, and was asked to tell students that were going to be graduating something about the Slovak National Uprising – as a former participant and the vice-president of the Central Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters. So I organized a talk there, and gave a lecture about the Slovak National Uprising and the Holocaust. That the Slovak National Uprising has been recorded in the history of the Slovak nation with a gold pen. Because with the help of the Slovak National Uprising, Slovakia as such was included with the victorious countries, and not with the defeated Fascist countries. So I spoke about it, and when I was finished, one graduate stood up and said: "Sir, please, I have one question." I said: "Yes, what is it?" "You say that you fought in the Slovak National Uprising, that you were the head of a recon unit, and that you were wounded and captured. You were dragged off to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Upper Austria." I said: "Yes." "So could you tell me please, what did you do in that camp all day?" This means I can't be angry with him, at that boy. They didn't study anything at all about the Holocaust and the concentration camps. They didn't know anything at all. They just knew the bare outline of the uprising, otherwise nothing. That's why I'm trying to tell this young generation what the uprising was, what the Holocaust was, and so on. So that they'll have at least some sort of a foundation. If their parents and teachers didn't tell them about it, or if they weren't interested in finding out about it, whether from books, or from magazines, I at least tell them about the past like this, orally.
Not just the Holocaust is left out of the school curriculum, but neither do they for example teach that Czechoslovakia was from the year 1918 [23] a multi-ethnic state. After all, there were Jews living here, there were Germans and Hungarians living here, and everyone got along. Why, Bratislava and lots of other places in Slovakia were trilingual. That was something normal, that families spoke Slovak, Hungarian and German amongst themselves. Those of my generation that were born in Bratislava or lived here, all of us spoke Slovak, German and Hungarian. When as children we played soccer and similar games, there were Germans and Jews there, and no one cared about nationality. There weren't any problems; everyone was first and foremost a human being. There wasn't any anti-Semitism here. During the time of the Slovak State [24] these kinds of comments already existed. There was for example anti-Jewish propaganda in the newspapers. Suddenly things, that before people had looked at normally, changed. They began to paint Jewish stars on windows of shops owned by Jews, and so on. Finally it culminated in the persecution of Jews. It was all artificially created by the Fascist-Catholic government of the time. Yes, these are facts that are known today, but no one talks about them. And it's also my obligation to educate people, and mainly the young generation, about it and tell them how it was. So that what took place during the Holocaust and the Slovak National Uprising is never forgotten. Mainly, so that these tragic events and atrocities are never repeated.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Oto Wagner