“Once it was dark. They said we were not going any further and placed us in a local school gym. Nobody guarded us there. We could have gone, but we had nowhere to go. We had no one. We didn't know what to do. So we stayed there all night. But of course the villagers learned about it. One family came, they were butchers and had no children. They learned there was one child in the gym at school. They came and started to talk to my parents, that they should give me to them. That no one will notice. There wasn't such an atmosphere there that they would aim at us with rifles. It was more or less so, yes, we had to go, but they didn't treat us roughly. I remember, they were butchers. Butcher in the village is well funded, they had no children. Somehow, they liked me and they strongly persuaded my parents to leave me with them there. That if they survive, they would know to whom to turn and I will be returned to them. And if not, and they knew it, since in Kremnicka, they were shooting people, they would bring me up with love.It was a difficult decision, as those soldiers, who were supposed to come for us in the morning, would not search. The atmosphere wasn't that bad. They kept their orders, but they weren't bad at us. But my parents decided to not give me to this pair."
“Then the Slovak National Uprising was suppressed. Suddenly, even in Cierny Balog, no one was sure about anything. They suggested, we should leave for the mountains. I remember that moment, or I know it from a story, it is hard to tell after all these years. The chairman came to us and said, don't go anywhere, stay here. I remember the sentence:
'We will not allow the Germans here.' But our parents put their heads together, Is a village able to withstand the German army? What nonsense! We must go to the mountains ‘So we packed the most necessary... But where to go? We hid in the most remote village, Osrblie. Today Osrblie is known because of its ski routes, but we never heard about it. Small village in the mountains. They thought, it could be good, we could be safe there. We started "bunkering" in the hills above the village. They discovered the first bunker very quickly. People, who pretended they are partisans, came there, they looted. They did no harm, just plundered and looted- they were looking for gold, or money. In Osrblie, we had one friend- a man, who wanted to help. But not for free. It was necessary to retain some money to sustain ourselves. He built a bunker for us. It was uphill, one wall was actually a hill, a sloping roof, it had such essentials, that we could be there even in the harsh winter. There was a stove, people from the village helped us with it at the beginning of September or October."
“It is true, that there was such a moment, that if Spielberg put it into his movie, people would say, of course, Spielberg...We came in front of the city prison. Of course we were in a pitiful state, dressed in rags, we did not eat properly. As we were unloaded from the car outside the town hall, it was called a townhouse, the bell on the tour struck twelve. I remember this also as a child. That was the key thing. Exactly at twelve, officials from the town hall went home for lunch. That was the rule back then. Twelve struck, and we were so anxiously waiting what would happen to us, and suddenly a town major went out. He walked down the stairs, and as every law-abiding clerk went home for lunch. There were no cantines. He went down the stairs and recognized my uncle. He came from Michalovce, a lawyer. And in Michalovce, it's a small town, everyone knew my uncle because he had a goldsmith's shop, and when nothing else, everyone bought a wedding ring from him. So he was really well known. Better known as my other uncle and dad, who were dentists. It just like that His name was Dr.Kabina, lawyer. He came to my uncle and asked him, 'Mr Stein, and what are you doing here?' “Mr. Stein, my uncle, told him. "You know, they caught us in the mountains and escorted us here." He looked at him and said: Mr. Stein, but you will be shot here." At that time it was common for all, including partisans and Jews, to be shot in Kremnička. Those who were caught, went directly here. So he said, 'I'm going to lunch now, go up in front of my office, sit down and tell the clerk you are supposed to wait for me.'
Hilda Svátková was born as Tehila Steinberger on April 10, 1935 in Tel Aviv, then Palestine, where her parents went to help build a Jewish state in 1932. At the insistence of his father‘s parents during the deteriorating situation of the Jews in Europe in the late 1930s, and with regards to the armed conflict between Arabs and Jews, her parents returned to Michalovce (where Tehila‘s mother was born) in 1938. Exceptions saved them from transports in 1942, as her father worked as a dental assistant with his brother-in-law who had his own dental office. In the spring of 1944, all Jews had to move out of the Saris-Zemplin County under a government order. Hilda‘s family with several relatives went west and found refuge in Cierny Balog, where they were warmly received. The family of Mr. Stein- Hilda‘s uncle, a renowned watchmaker and goldsmith from Michalovce, was also with them. After the occupation of Slovakia by German troops(after the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising), in October 1944, the deportations were renewed. Hilda was part of a group that hid in a bunker in the mountains above Osrblie. Because of the guerrillas carrying their food, the bunker was discovered by Austrian soldiers following their footsteps in the snow. They escorted them to Banská Bystrica prison for several days. They were saved from certain death in Kremnicka by random meeting with a town major from Michalovce on the stairs. He knew the goldsmith Stein. After the war, they found out that all father‘s siblings and many mother‘s relatives had died. Hilda attended grammar school in Presov and studied medicine in Olomouc. She completed her degree in pediatrics at Charles University. She and her husband moved to Bratislava in 1960, where she worked in a children‘s clinic, later as a sports doctor. After retirement she worked at the social department of the Jewish religious community.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
