Mária Ševčíková

“Dad told them, 'Mr. Stern, they are taking the Jews. You have to get out of here. "He didn't know where they went. They simply left. We used to have such a hedge that looked like a small room since it reached down to the ground. It was so dense that no one could see inside. Five people hid there, including two children. These were taught not to even cheep – to be so quiet. So the children stayed there, their grandma (omama), along with Mr. and Mrs. Stern. They all sat there when the guards came and searched for them. They searched through everything, but found nothing. They even stood in front of the hedge, but didn't suspect them to be inside. Our father didn't know about that either. And they knew this place, so they snuck inside. Just imagine those kids. If one of them had only groaned, they would have found them. And they would have already been in the first one (the first transport of Jews from Hlohovec, note of ed.), not being alive anymore.”

“We had plums fallen on the ground, yet some of them being green, and he gave them to the child to eat. My father told him: 'Mr. Schmidt, why are you giving the plums to this child? It is not ripe yet. He can get sick.' 'Let him pop off, stinky Jew! May he drop dead!' That's what he said.”