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We didn’t know what summer vacation meant, there was no such thing. Mother went for two or three months to visit her mother in Dombo. She usually took the smallest of my siblings with her, since the smallest still needed her anyway. They would pick all kinds of fruits and mushrooms in the Dombo forests. They dried those and sent them home. Those of us who were already a bit bigger, stayed home, because school started in September. Mother only got home later for the fall holidays. The last time she went home to Dombo was in the summer of 1940 or 1941. That’s when she saw her mother last, too.
There wasn’t a market in Felsoszeli, in Dombo, either. Only in Galanta. Everything that we needed was grown in Felsoszeli. I remember, there were market days, but how often, I don’t know. They came from Dunaszerdahely and elsewhere to the market day. When I was a little girl, at about ten or eleven years old, I already watched out so they didn’t steal. I always got a piece of material, which I then had a skirt or dress made from. The family didn’t have a regular merchant who they could have ordered anything from.
In Felsoszeli, where we lived, a big Communist was living there, and he had a son. His name was Bela Katyo. As we left the village, there was a bridge, the Rakottyasi bridge. We always teased Bela, ‘Hey look, Hitler’s coming across the Rakottyasi bridge, to take away the Communists.’ That happened in about 1934-35, there wasn’t any anti-Jewish atmosphere, yet. I was never made aware in my childhood that I was Jewish. No, not ever.
There wasn’t a market in Felsoszeli, in Dombo, either. Only in Galanta. Everything that we needed was grown in Felsoszeli. I remember, there were market days, but how often, I don’t know. They came from Dunaszerdahely and elsewhere to the market day. When I was a little girl, at about ten or eleven years old, I already watched out so they didn’t steal. I always got a piece of material, which I then had a skirt or dress made from. The family didn’t have a regular merchant who they could have ordered anything from.
In Felsoszeli, where we lived, a big Communist was living there, and he had a son. His name was Bela Katyo. As we left the village, there was a bridge, the Rakottyasi bridge. We always teased Bela, ‘Hey look, Hitler’s coming across the Rakottyasi bridge, to take away the Communists.’ That happened in about 1934-35, there wasn’t any anti-Jewish atmosphere, yet. I was never made aware in my childhood that I was Jewish. No, not ever.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Ruzena Deutschova