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My father was called up [for World War I] in Bratislava. In the city of Bratislava, there was the 13th National Guard and the 42nd National Guard. My father was in the 13th National Guard, and went directly to the front with the first units, to Przemysl [in Galicia] [7]. Przemysl still belonged to Austria then, later Poland, and it lies near the border of Russia.
Przemysl was a fortification. He stayed there for quite a long time. My father – I don’t know after what time, sometime in the evening, when they could leave the fort and go into the city – this is one of the humorous anecdotes of my family history – went into the city. He went into the only bank there was in the town, and asked for the director.
He introduced himself and said that they were colleagues, that he was also a director of a bank, in Bratislava. The other man was very glad to meet my father, and invited him to dinner. My father was quite a man at cards, and they sat down to ‘rumble the flats.’ They invited my father, saying anytime he was in town, they would gladly welcome him. A couple days later he came back, and played cards again.
The next time there were three of them, I think they played ‘preference’ or ‘undercut’ [games played with an Austro-Hungarian deck], because the Przemysl bank director had also invited another friend. Again they invited my father for dinner, and had a great time.
My father had to return to the fortification by midnight. While he was at dinner, the Russians occupied the fort, so he couldn’t go back. It was difficult, but somehow my father got away. On the way home [to Bratislava] he met Austro-Hungarian units here and there, who just passed him on to the next one – report here, report there.
In the end, after a long time, he got home. My father said that’s how cards saved his life. Keep in mind that many of the fathers of my first grade classmates, who were close in age to my father, didn’t come back, but ended up as prisoners. If they survived the imprisonment, by the time they got home, it had been Czechoslovakia for a long time [see First Czechoslovak Republic] [8]; and if they didn’t, they died.
Przemysl was a fortification. He stayed there for quite a long time. My father – I don’t know after what time, sometime in the evening, when they could leave the fort and go into the city – this is one of the humorous anecdotes of my family history – went into the city. He went into the only bank there was in the town, and asked for the director.
He introduced himself and said that they were colleagues, that he was also a director of a bank, in Bratislava. The other man was very glad to meet my father, and invited him to dinner. My father was quite a man at cards, and they sat down to ‘rumble the flats.’ They invited my father, saying anytime he was in town, they would gladly welcome him. A couple days later he came back, and played cards again.
The next time there were three of them, I think they played ‘preference’ or ‘undercut’ [games played with an Austro-Hungarian deck], because the Przemysl bank director had also invited another friend. Again they invited my father for dinner, and had a great time.
My father had to return to the fortification by midnight. While he was at dinner, the Russians occupied the fort, so he couldn’t go back. It was difficult, but somehow my father got away. On the way home [to Bratislava] he met Austro-Hungarian units here and there, who just passed him on to the next one – report here, report there.
In the end, after a long time, he got home. My father said that’s how cards saved his life. Keep in mind that many of the fathers of my first grade classmates, who were close in age to my father, didn’t come back, but ended up as prisoners. If they survived the imprisonment, by the time they got home, it had been Czechoslovakia for a long time [see First Czechoslovak Republic] [8]; and if they didn’t, they died.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Katarina Löfflerova