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My grandfather’s family was very religious. My grandfather even went about circumcising far and wide [mohel: performs ritual circumcision – brit milah. Circumcision is one of the fundamental rules of Judaism – Editor’s note]. Here I also recall one hiding I got from him. The circumcision tools had to be sterile. I don’t know what kind of metal they were made from, but they were beautiful, shiny and stored in a tube. That tube was inserted into another cover, and was carefully hidden in the hay in the attic. As a young boy I found this hiding place. My bad luck was that my grandfather caught me and gave me a good hiding. Twice in my life I got it from him. Once when I was playing with those tools, and the second time when I had been smoking.
In my grandparents’ neighborhood there lived non-Jews with whom they got along very well. They were Slovaks that had returned from America, so Americans [at the turn of the 19th and 20th Century, many people, especially those from poor areas of today’s Slovakia, left for the USA for work. Those that returned were called Americans – Editor’s note]. The only thing that my grandmother couldn’t understand was her neighbor’s peculiar inclination. She had as many cats at home as in a Zoo, and when a cat died, she would bury it in the garden. She even gave every cat a little tablet with its name. Their whole courtyard looked like a cemetery. My grandmother thought it was bizarre. After all, she also had cats at home, but for catching mice.
On the whole, relations between people in the village were friendly. This is based on the fact that the Protestant priest in the town of Chmelov, Marencin, didn’t distinguish between Christians and Jews, and that villagers were very generous and were friendly to Jews that they met.
Both of my grandparents died before the war. I don’t remember exactly when anymore, but it was either in 1936 or 1937. Grandma was sickly, but I know that my grandfather was never ill. And that thanks to his lifestyle. Well, according to neighboring farmers, he probably had something with his prostate, maybe prostate cancer. They’re both buried in the town of Podlipniky [Presov region]. I went to find them, but unfortunately it’s so overgrown with weeds that I didn’t even find their gravestones.
In my grandparents’ neighborhood there lived non-Jews with whom they got along very well. They were Slovaks that had returned from America, so Americans [at the turn of the 19th and 20th Century, many people, especially those from poor areas of today’s Slovakia, left for the USA for work. Those that returned were called Americans – Editor’s note]. The only thing that my grandmother couldn’t understand was her neighbor’s peculiar inclination. She had as many cats at home as in a Zoo, and when a cat died, she would bury it in the garden. She even gave every cat a little tablet with its name. Their whole courtyard looked like a cemetery. My grandmother thought it was bizarre. After all, she also had cats at home, but for catching mice.
On the whole, relations between people in the village were friendly. This is based on the fact that the Protestant priest in the town of Chmelov, Marencin, didn’t distinguish between Christians and Jews, and that villagers were very generous and were friendly to Jews that they met.
Both of my grandparents died before the war. I don’t remember exactly when anymore, but it was either in 1936 or 1937. Grandma was sickly, but I know that my grandfather was never ill. And that thanks to his lifestyle. Well, according to neighboring farmers, he probably had something with his prostate, maybe prostate cancer. They’re both buried in the town of Podlipniky [Presov region]. I went to find them, but unfortunately it’s so overgrown with weeds that I didn’t even find their gravestones.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Jozef W.