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My grandparents on my mother’s side dressed in a modern way. In the photographs I have, they’re dressed normally. I don’t remember at all how my grandparents observed holidays. I don’t know what political opinions they had or what political party the Picks preferred. I don’t remember it, because they died when I was very small. My mom didn’t talk much about her parents with me. I only know a story about my mom’s little six-year-old brother, who died as a result of a dog bite. Apparently he got blood poisoning and subsequently meningitis.
Here I’d like to recall one more interesting thing, how my grandma Pickova’s sisters got married. My grandmother was named Jozefina, and had a younger sister, Berta. Berta’s daughter married someone in Vienna. She also survived the Holocaust. After the war she brought her mother, my aunt Berta, to live with her in Vienna. During the war Aunt Berta hid with her other daughter, Zita. After Berta’s death her daughter, whom she had lived with in Vienna, moved to America, where she also died.
Another sister, Regina, married this one big landowner in Velky Kolacin [today Nova Dubnica, Ilava county]. Velky Kolacin is located over the hill from Trencianske Teplice, in the direction of Nova Dubnice. She and her husband together took care of a large farm. They had two sons. The younger one helped in farming the fields. The older one was an army officer during World War I, they were terribly proud of him. During the war he was wounded and wasn’t well off health-wise. Still before the war he fell in love with the daughter of Count Andahazy. The Andahazys owned a manor in a nearby village. They had two daughters and my mother’s cousin fell in love with one of them. The parents on both sides were very much against their relationship. The Andahazys didn’t want a Jewish son-in-law, and the other side didn’t want a count’s daughter as a bride. In the end they married anyways.
Here I’d like to recall one more interesting thing, how my grandma Pickova’s sisters got married. My grandmother was named Jozefina, and had a younger sister, Berta. Berta’s daughter married someone in Vienna. She also survived the Holocaust. After the war she brought her mother, my aunt Berta, to live with her in Vienna. During the war Aunt Berta hid with her other daughter, Zita. After Berta’s death her daughter, whom she had lived with in Vienna, moved to America, where she also died.
Another sister, Regina, married this one big landowner in Velky Kolacin [today Nova Dubnica, Ilava county]. Velky Kolacin is located over the hill from Trencianske Teplice, in the direction of Nova Dubnice. She and her husband together took care of a large farm. They had two sons. The younger one helped in farming the fields. The older one was an army officer during World War I, they were terribly proud of him. During the war he was wounded and wasn’t well off health-wise. Still before the war he fell in love with the daughter of Count Andahazy. The Andahazys owned a manor in a nearby village. They had two daughters and my mother’s cousin fell in love with one of them. The parents on both sides were very much against their relationship. The Andahazys didn’t want a Jewish son-in-law, and the other side didn’t want a count’s daughter as a bride. In the end they married anyways.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Judita Schvalbova