Vera Meisels

“Imagine, that they shouted in a loud voice or from megaphones at the platform: ʻMeisels Zoltán and Meisels Móritz with families, come out of the wagons!ʼ I don´t even know if this ever happened before, but it wasn´t an everyday thing. We were in a wagon with my family from Prešov, from my father´s side. And this family from Prešov was really big. My dad had seven siblings, no counting aunts, uncles, and cousins. So the four of us – me, my sister, dad and mom – came out of the wagon, from which no one ever returned back again. We were granted exceptions because we owned a business for horseshoes´ production. This way we were labeled as needed for the Slovak economy. Afterwards, we, the Jews, were taken from the cattle wagon to a hotel.”

“My mom sent me and my older sister to Trebišov, to our grandparents´. And we had a great time at their house. For long years they had a maid in their house, called Mariška, and she used to play and cuddle with us all the time. And then guardsmen or German soldiers came. My grandma and grandpa had all their stuff packed already, so they had to know about the upcoming transport. Those soldiers wanted to take my sister and me as well, but Mariška saved us and told them we were there just for a visit and that we couldn´t be transported from Trebišov. However, I think that the guardsmen knew our Mariška and she swore to them to take us to Prešov, from where we would get on a transport together with our parents. And that´s how it was…”