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Helena Quittner, née Urban. In the family we called her Ilush neni. Her husband was named Ignatz Quittner, and owned a store with lumber and construction materials. Her husband died before I was born. Aunt Helena owned and operated a well-known and notorious restaurant in Piestany. It was named Kominar [Chimneysweep]. She employed two cooks and a barman. The barman, besides pouring beer, also took care everything that was necessary. One of the rooms in the restaurant was decorated with hunting trophies. There were antlers, heads of wild boar, deer, and so on. The food was excellent there. We used to go there often. We'd always get something sweet. In the restaurant courtyard, there was a large icehouse. In the winter, when the Vah [River] would freeze over, they'd organize ice-cutting. The ice would then be stored, and that's where they'd chill beverages. There weren't any refrigerators. Everything that needed to be chilled, or frozen, was chilled with natural ice. Aunt Helena was childless. Alas, she didn't survive the war. They took her to a concentration camp, where she was murdered like almost all the women in our family.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Ladislav Urban