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After the war, they renewed the Jewish community in Piestany. My father didn't return to its leadership. I'm not saying he didn't get involved, but gave up leading the community. Some of the community officials also returned. For example Mr. Faber, and Spronc. Of the other returnees, I can mention Oskar Stern, who worked for my father at the store. During the war he was in hiding. In Bergen-Belsen his sister Aranka Sternova approached us. She'd been deported from Budapest, where she'd been living on false papers. In the concentration camp she was in the same blockhouse as the rest of the Hungarian women. They somehow knew how to find food. They helped the capo carry infirm women to roll calls, and thus were a bit better off. She used to call us over to see her. The Hungarian women guarded their blockhouse, as people stole. So they always had someone at the door. We'd agreed as to what time we'd come, and the woman on watch would let us in. Aranka had bread and a pail full of jam. So we got a half-centimeter thick piece of bread and on top of that three centimeters of jam.
After the war, my father opened his store again in a relatively short time, and began selling. With the advent of the Communists [16], he became a capitalist, and so he couldn't find work. At first he worked as a driver's assistant in this still half-private company that specialized in medical equipment. Later it turned into Chirana [Chirana Piestany a.s. was founded in 1962 – Editor's note]. He worked for a department that specialized in the repair of old medical equipment. He worked there for several years as a driver's assistant. Then when they set up a central collection point for equipment repairs, he became the head. He gradually got better and better at it, and worked there for practically the rest of his life. It didn't ever occur to my father to emigrate. He was a big capitalist, and kept claiming that socialism couldn't last long, and that it couldn't continue on like this. He didn't like any of their measures. Whether it was the banking sector, the financial sector or economy, it all went against his logic. We had buildings that they confiscated. My father died in 1984. He's buried at the Jewish cemetery in Piestany, in the same place as his parents and later also his second wife.
After the war, my father opened his store again in a relatively short time, and began selling. With the advent of the Communists [16], he became a capitalist, and so he couldn't find work. At first he worked as a driver's assistant in this still half-private company that specialized in medical equipment. Later it turned into Chirana [Chirana Piestany a.s. was founded in 1962 – Editor's note]. He worked for a department that specialized in the repair of old medical equipment. He worked there for several years as a driver's assistant. Then when they set up a central collection point for equipment repairs, he became the head. He gradually got better and better at it, and worked there for practically the rest of his life. It didn't ever occur to my father to emigrate. He was a big capitalist, and kept claiming that socialism couldn't last long, and that it couldn't continue on like this. He didn't like any of their measures. Whether it was the banking sector, the financial sector or economy, it all went against his logic. We had buildings that they confiscated. My father died in 1984. He's buried at the Jewish cemetery in Piestany, in the same place as his parents and later also his second wife.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Ladislav Urban