Alexander Reitman and Veronika Kosikova

This picture shows my father Alexander Reitman and me in Zlate Moravce. We had to move to many different places then, but this photo was definitely taken before we were in Novaky labor camp, so some time around 1942.

My parents came from the same region. My father was born in Slepcany, my mother in Dolne Slazany. They said my father had to jump over the stream to meet my mother. My father was born into a poor Jewish family. His father, Gustav Reitman, was from a family with 16 children. He worked with leather and later he bought out seeds and corn. My parents married in May 1937 and they lived in Zlate Moravce, where my father had his wholesale company, along with his father and brothers. They weren't Orthodox Jews.

I was the only child in our family. I was born on 18th February 1940 in Zlate Moravce. My memories of this region are very vague because I only lived there for a few years because of the war.