Anna Világiová

"Recently, I read an article that a certain Adam Fiačan – that was my grandfather's name, also helped the Jews. I don't know exactly which one it was, because there are several Fiačan families in Galovany. My mother mentioned to me that they also helped and hid – I don't know if Jewish families or partisans, but they helped a lot. She also told me how she used to carry bread up the mountain – she had acquaintances everywhere – at the offices, she also knew the policemen, because she worked at the Kriváň Hotel, and they used to meet at the stamp shop there, so she had everyone caught up in that way." "The help you mentioned was probably a partisan, because you said she carried bread to the mountain." "Yes, they baked bread at night and mom got a permit because there was a night-to-morning curfew. She took a bottle to the office – she always knew how to arrange something like this, and she did it often when she was young. She was given permission to move outside during the ban, they took a wagon and loaded it with bread, which they took to the partisans in the forest."

"When we stopped at the border in Berg, they were already checking us. We had to open our suitcases, they looked for money somewhere and asked us why we were traveling and where. When we were coming back, the same thing again – we opened our suitcases and looked at what we were bringing. I once brought five pullovers from Italy. They let me off the train with my suitcase and took me to customs, where they cleared two sweaters for me, saying that I had extra. So I paid customs there, I don't remember how much it was, for two extra pullovers. It was horrible. And then, when we arrived with the train at the main station in Bratislava – it was dark everywhere, everything was gloomy and unlit, no illuminated advertisements, bars closed, but simply terrible. And when you went to the store, they had almost nothing in it. I remember standing in line with a bag full of glass bottles and there were empty shelves everywhere - nothing compared to what's available in stores these days. It was horrible."