Malvina Friedmannova and her friend Blanka Dvorska

This is my sister Malvina or Manci Friedmannova, with her friend Blanka Dvorska, who was born in 1916 in Presov and who survived the Holocaust. The photo was taken in Presov in the 1940s. Blanka was exempted from deportation because she was teaching in Giraltovce those kids, who were exempted themselves with their parents, so she was safe. After the Slovak Uprising, she went to Banska Bystrica. Manci was born in 1920 in Presov. She graduated from a high school, then we stopped going to school because of the anti-Jewish measures, I went to work for a wood-seller, who was Jewish and for whom my sister was also supposed to work. But my father sent me without her and Manci stayed home because my father was always worried about her, since she was so beautiful. Manci went to the gas chamber with my parents in Treblinka. It makes me cry when I remember what a cute little thing she was, with those blue eyes and dark hair. I really loved her. Sometimes I think of her, even today, when I see her friend Katka Hexnerova, nee Grossova, who lives in Kosice now.