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According to the anti-Jewish laws [in Slovak state] [25] then, if somebody got a job, then they got a work permit also. I was the only one in this respect, who was lucky in our family. My father’s nephew’s law office was in Bratislava, and was Aryanized with a personal request by one of the mayors. At that time, Bratislava had three mayors – a German one, a Slovak one and a Hungarian one. The Hungarian one, was Dr. Victor Forster. He Aryanized it. I stayed in my job in the law office.
Dr. Forster successfully got me a work permit on every occasion. Very often, sometimes every day, I had to go to court. This was at the time when you only had to wear the small Jewish star. I was terrified, I always had case dockets in my arms, because there were altogether 200 young [Hlinka] guards in uniform in Bratislava – they called themselves, astronomers – who went around the city, looking for Jews who didn’t wear the star, to punish them.
The fine was a hundred crowns, which was a lot, about a thousand crowns today. There were two young men, I knew their faces. I generally squeezed the star in my left hand. If I saw them somewhere, I pinned it on quickly. One time, I noticed them too late, but tried to get the star on quickly. They stopped me, and said, ‘Be very careful, one time you could get blood poisoning, if you prick your finger.’ So there were these kind of people, too.
I have to mention an interesting character, just because, in the middle of all the monstrosity a few humane things happened here and there. What they call SNP Square today was Republic Square. In the place where the market-hall is, there were greengrocer stands, some vegetables but mostly fruits.
As I passed by, I noticed they had some beautiful grapes. If I could buy some grapes for my mother, how great that would be! I stood hesitating, because it was forbidden to shop there.
As I was standing, I saw the astronomers approaching; they didn’t notice that I quickly pinned the star on. The Guardists approached in my direction and said, ‘Well, what happened here, that you’re standing around?’ I answered truthfully, that I envied those that could buy grapes, that I’d like to too.
They said to give them fifty koruna, they went over and bought two kilos of grapes, I could hardly carry them all home. They bought them for me, then disappeared. So there were these kind of characters, too. Of course, they moved on, and merrily punished those that they met.
This is how we made it through life all the way to 1942. On 26th March 1942, the first group of girls went. [Slovakia was one of the first nations annexed by fascist Germany, from where Jews were deported to death camps. The first wave of deportations started in 1942 and lasted almost seven months. Between 25th March and 20th October 1942, 57 convoys of freight trains were sent with 57,751 Jews.
Nineteen were sent directly to the Auschwitz death camp, the other 38 trains with almost 39,000 Jews were sent to the area around Lublin.] They said that they were taking everyone from 16 to 30 years of age to Poland to work – and of course, they meant the women also, who didn’t have husbands, were divorced or widows.
Unfortunately they took 90 percent of them. The mothers escorted their young daughters to the station and sure enough, handed them over, there. It took a long time before we knew about Auschwitz; it was unknown until then. A couple of months went by until we realized that, whoops, that really isn’t a work camp, that’s something else. 1942 was a horrible year, full of anxieties.
Dr. Forster successfully got me a work permit on every occasion. Very often, sometimes every day, I had to go to court. This was at the time when you only had to wear the small Jewish star. I was terrified, I always had case dockets in my arms, because there were altogether 200 young [Hlinka] guards in uniform in Bratislava – they called themselves, astronomers – who went around the city, looking for Jews who didn’t wear the star, to punish them.
The fine was a hundred crowns, which was a lot, about a thousand crowns today. There were two young men, I knew their faces. I generally squeezed the star in my left hand. If I saw them somewhere, I pinned it on quickly. One time, I noticed them too late, but tried to get the star on quickly. They stopped me, and said, ‘Be very careful, one time you could get blood poisoning, if you prick your finger.’ So there were these kind of people, too.
I have to mention an interesting character, just because, in the middle of all the monstrosity a few humane things happened here and there. What they call SNP Square today was Republic Square. In the place where the market-hall is, there were greengrocer stands, some vegetables but mostly fruits.
As I passed by, I noticed they had some beautiful grapes. If I could buy some grapes for my mother, how great that would be! I stood hesitating, because it was forbidden to shop there.
As I was standing, I saw the astronomers approaching; they didn’t notice that I quickly pinned the star on. The Guardists approached in my direction and said, ‘Well, what happened here, that you’re standing around?’ I answered truthfully, that I envied those that could buy grapes, that I’d like to too.
They said to give them fifty koruna, they went over and bought two kilos of grapes, I could hardly carry them all home. They bought them for me, then disappeared. So there were these kind of characters, too. Of course, they moved on, and merrily punished those that they met.
This is how we made it through life all the way to 1942. On 26th March 1942, the first group of girls went. [Slovakia was one of the first nations annexed by fascist Germany, from where Jews were deported to death camps. The first wave of deportations started in 1942 and lasted almost seven months. Between 25th March and 20th October 1942, 57 convoys of freight trains were sent with 57,751 Jews.
Nineteen were sent directly to the Auschwitz death camp, the other 38 trains with almost 39,000 Jews were sent to the area around Lublin.] They said that they were taking everyone from 16 to 30 years of age to Poland to work – and of course, they meant the women also, who didn’t have husbands, were divorced or widows.
Unfortunately they took 90 percent of them. The mothers escorted their young daughters to the station and sure enough, handed them over, there. It took a long time before we knew about Auschwitz; it was unknown until then. A couple of months went by until we realized that, whoops, that really isn’t a work camp, that’s something else. 1942 was a horrible year, full of anxieties.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Katarina Löfflerova