Béla Szaló

"In Hungarian schools, there was a level of benevolence. We hadn't said 'comrade teacher'. We used terms such as 'aunt Marta'. Some teachers would indeed greet us 'honor to labour' but most didn't. I recall that I was at a summer camp in fifth or sixth grade. Parents and teachers did the cooking there. It was all fairly spontaneous. Then I went to a Pionýr camp and thought I'd go crazy. We had to wear scarves and so on. The Hungarian camp was spontaneous, we did everything ourselves. Suddenly, all was different at the other one. I never went to another Pionýr camp."

"In Nové Zámky, there were two football teams. One of them was Lokomotiva, representing the Hungarian community. Then there was Slovan, which was Slovak. On the main square, there were two chestnuts. After a match, the Hungarians would meet at one of them and the Slovaks at the other one. But the matches were different than they are today - no rudeness. However, the Party and the government then came up with the idea that there shouldn't be two teams in one town. They had to merge into one stronger one. They did that and it sucked, to say it bluntly."