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Before the war we had both Jewish and non-Jewish friends. But the anti-Jewish laws had a big influence on mixed friendships. It began with the fact that customers stopped coming to my father’s store. They began saying that they won’t buy things from Jews. You know, you eventually notice that. Friends turned away, from one hour to the next, they stopped talking to us. It very much affected us children. Good thing that my cousin Edita lived nearby, in Dlha Street. We used to go play at their place. But mostly we were at home, because the prohibitions limited us to the degree that you almost couldn’t go out into the street. When we did go out into the street, German boys would start chasing us.
As a native of Bratislava, I knew all the little streets, passages and nooks and crannies of the city. I knew Zidovska Street, Klariska, Kapucinska... So I knew that if in Klariska I enter a certain building and crossed two courtyard galleries, I’d get to Kapucinska. Or if I entered in Kapucinska, I’d exit into Zidovska. We knew routes through attics and cellars. Sometimes that saved us from those German boys. So, when the Hitlerjugend [10] would begin chasing us, we’d run into a gateway, and through a courtyard gallery we’d get to the next street. It basically saved us from a certain beating.
As a native of Bratislava, I knew all the little streets, passages and nooks and crannies of the city. I knew Zidovska Street, Klariska, Kapucinska... So I knew that if in Klariska I enter a certain building and crossed two courtyard galleries, I’d get to Kapucinska. Or if I entered in Kapucinska, I’d exit into Zidovska. We knew routes through attics and cellars. Sometimes that saved us from those German boys. So, when the Hitlerjugend [10] would begin chasing us, we’d run into a gateway, and through a courtyard gallery we’d get to the next street. It basically saved us from a certain beating.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Henrich F.