Slovakia - a village childhood

I first went to school with my best friend. Her name was Nina Weilova, she was really Frantiska, but we called her Nina. I do not now remember when exactly we went to school together. Suddenly they were transported away and I saw her no more until after the war. The picture here shows you all the jews of our town being sent away.

Nina was the only member of her family who survived the concentration camp. It was a miracle that she managed to survive such a hell. On one rare insistence she sometimes reluctantly described the horrors she went through. Once when she stood in front of the gas chamber, a nazi guard kicked her away shouted: " What are you doing here, you Jewish swine, go to work, hurry to the kitchen!" She said she would remember this sentence for the rest of her life as it saved her live. In the kitchen she could eat a little more and she managed to survive until the end of the war.

Even today, she can not understand why it happened and why she was saved that way. It had to be the Gods will. Countless number of people had no such lucky escape. I myself am at a loss to comprehend the millions of victims of the war. I sometimes wonder how many inhabitants lived in the former Austrian-Hungarian empire.

Marcela Smolková
born 29.1.1932

Read Marcela's story about her school-days