PhDr., CSc. Ivan Kamenec

Can I come back a little bit? Mr. Kamenec, you moved to Topoľčany, which is a very specific town with your own family history during the Second World War. How did you perceive the events in Topoľčany that took place? When it happened in Topoľčany, the so-called Jewish pogrom, so we haven't been there yet. That was in September 1945, we still lived in Janova Ves. But I know it was talked about, at home. Of course I didn't understand it, I was seven years old, so. But I found friends in Topoľčany and I went to these events, then returned as a historian, when I also wrote about them. But. And as with you, in your family, you mentioned that your father's business was nationalized. Come on, like everyone else. It wasn't, it was a building company. And, but, how your parents perceived it, after surviving all of this, during World War II, and then the beginning of the next regime. But, you. We, I mean the nationalization. So they probably didn't like it, because my father couldn't make his own business. He remained working in construction building, working in various companies as construction plants and I do not know. But, you know, the hierarchy of those values ​​was already completely different. The important thing was that we survived and that whether they took the construction company from him or not, he probably didn't like it, but when he compared it to what was before, he probably came to terms with it much easier. But then the inconveniences began. You well, there was background checking always. But then I didn't talk about this with my parents, but even then we were thrown out of the apartment in Topoľčany as a former capitalist. It was not part of Action B, so they moved them out completely somewhere. They did this mainly against the citizens of Bratislava, but they let us live in one such apartment. We had a very comfortable apartment in Topoľčany, so nice. And then they let us live in another house, where as far as I know, three families had a kitchen and accessories together. So it was not pleasant, but I say, all of this, it was unlike what happened during the war, not that negligible, but it wasn't the most important thing.

Let's go back maybe so let's try to go through time. You, when you were born, it was in the time before the establishment of the Slovak state. You can't remember that. No. Context. But, maybe even from the story of the parents and the vicinity, you know how they perceived it. So your father got an economic exemption, but how was the mood? Maybe even between the majority and the minority of Jewish origin. I don't know. I think it depends on everyone, of course the individual, and we were in that bunker, for seven months. And there, those people actually saved us. So maybe there was a mood, they had no prejudices and they were deeply religious people. They. You mentioned that your family converted to another. Sorry? That you mentioned that your family converted. Yes. To another religion. Yes, but what's here. That origin still remained, they did not recognize it when someone converted, because in Slovakia, then racial legislation was introduced in the fortieth-first. The Jew was no longer used, considered, defined by religion, but by the origin of the race. And when did your parents convert? In the fortieth-second. That is, at a very bad time, when the deportations began, but apparently they were preparing for it. I don't know, I didn't talk to them about this, because some things have to be left as such. I could talk to them and ask questions, but because my parents were close to me, I didn't decide for this. And do you know who baptized them, or? Sorry? That if you know who helped them to convert. Yes, I remember, a village pastor was there. He was called Rus. I remember him so foggy, and most converts were going, they were converting because they wanted to save themselves, and then were going back to their original religion. And my parents were not like them.They stayed with the new religion.