Mariana Rybecká

“The farmer we lived with was a widower and he lived with his former housemaid. They weren’t rich; they had horses, a cow, they didn’t have small animals. Once, my mom brought two cans of sardines with other groceries from the shop. Usually she didn’t buy such stuff, because it was expensive and it wasn’t really filling food. It was unneeded rarity. We opened it and offered the farmer, because we used to eat together sometimes, as well. My mom offered him the sardines, they were small, tasty. He took it, had a bite and yuk, he spilled it out. I felt so sorry because of that; he spilled the whole little fish on the floor. I wish I could have pounced on it and washed it. It was such bizarreness, but I felt so sorry. You know for me, the sardine was something exceptional.”

“I came from Bratislava and as a hungry student, I ate not only a small portion, but of course, a full bowl of mushrooms with eggs, because I loved it. I ate it with a piece of bread and at around 10 – 11 p.m. we had to go to the hospital. My mom called a taxi and in Štiavnica’s hospital there were more than 30 people sitting in the halls and throwing up. All were sick. All those, who didn’t have a drink. Those, who had a shot or wine, were OK. I was way in the worst possible state, since I ate probably three times more than what those people ate. My mom became accused that she wanted to harm Slovak technical intelligence and sacrifice her own child. I was in terrible condition, just throwing up again and again. So not the people there accused her, but later on, for alleged sacrificing of her daughter she was imprisoned for 2 weeks in Ilava remand prison. It was within the Slánský’s process. A Jew was an enemy. Luckily, at the symposium there was an academic Turzo, who was a zealous mushroom picker. He asked for a sample, because back then according to law, each restaurant had to set aside food samples for two days in a refrigerator. Just then he found out what had happened. The woodsmen prepared chemical spraying due to rabies found in fox.”