We knew whose parents died, but we never talked about our experiences. I don’t know whether it was a shame, or fear. I couldn’t understand it even today
Lea Schreiber, nee Greslova, was born on October 18, 1931, in Dobsina. Her parents Etel and Alexander were practising Jews, the family made living from a tannery workshop. After attending elementary school, Lea was allowed to attend the first two years with Slovak classmates, but then to antijewish laws was relegated into separate Jewish class. Greslers managed to escape the first wave of deportations. She hid before the occupation of Dobsina by Germans in a forest cottage next to village Slavosovce. At the beginning of the year 1945, they escaped arrest in the last minute, until liberation, they were hiding in the attic of a railroad worker. After the war, the family moved to Roznava, Lea left to study at a gymnasium in Kosice. She joined a Jewish youth organisation Bnej Akviva, where she learned about Zionism and decided to emigrate to Israel. Together with other immigrants, she sailed to Haifa on March 21, 1949. Her parents moved to Bratislava, where her father as a member of illegal zionist organisation Bircha helped Jews to emigrate from communist Czechoslovakia. Later, they also emigrated to their daughter to Israel. In Israel, Lea met her future husband Imre Schreiber, with whom she had three children. She currently lives in the city Kirjat Bialik.
