Judita Haasová

* 1947

  • So we were fine. When a friend called us, that they reported it on the radio that they had occupied us. So we saw those tanks from the balcony as they went. The day before, my brother was returning from Lake Balaton. He was there with a friend on the "pionierky". He said there was a huge army at the border, but he didn't know which. He knew only that there's just going to be some big exercise. We didn't notice others. And in the morning we went to the streets. Mom didn't want to let us go because she claimed she had been liberated by the Russians. She didn't like the mood that was anti-Russian. We were here nonetheless. Tanks and Russian soldiers stood on the bridge with riffles. They were targeting the people who ran there. Komárno was lucky. At least I heard that there were Russian soldiers with whom our army had friends. So the officers knew each other. They surrounded the barracks that were in the bastions. They occupied them and agreed. Eventually, our soldiers left, and they crowded there.

  • I know about that way back only, that they walked. Here and there some people gave them some clothes, some food. Then someone gave them a bike. They went three, so they exchanged along the way on that bike. Then some russian soldiers approached by jeep and were offered to take them. Finally, they loaded the bike and left. So they kept walking. I don't know where they got on the train and came to Nové Zámky. And from there they walked again.

  • "I only know that much. Not from him either, but from others. That the grandfather was the rabbi last time in Čičov. They had 13 living children. But I don't know the names or when they were born. I don't know anything about it, because my father never talked about his family. Before the war my father was married. He lost his wife and child, his mother-in-law and his whole family. He was unwilling to talk about it. I only know this from the neighbors. We lived in Svätý Peter near Komárno. Therea father lived before the war with his first family. And then we also lived there until 1965. ”

  • My father was in several labor camps. So I heard that since 1942. My father was a baker, so he had such a job there as well. He was not on the front line. I know he escaped in 1944. When he heard that the Germans were taking Jews from this area to camps, he tried to escape. He ran away. He wanted to hide his family, but he couldn't find them. He hid in such woods near the village. One of the neighbors came for him in the car. Neighbor hid my father under the hay and then hid it on the attic. He had a small farm in Svätý Peter, there were a couple of cows and some two horses. I don't know how he let them know, but they came for him and hid him. What I know about my father's family, I know from these neighbors. Then the Germans came to the village. They were in front the Germans and their father and another man was in the attic. So they tried to take away as much food as they could. Then the russian army came to the village, so the father joined the russian army.

  • Galanta is an orthodox. All holidays and church services were on Friday evening and Saturday morning. So there was a Jewish life there. In Komárno less, but in Galanta it was normal. I had a mother-in-law who had a kosher kitchen for the rest of her life. Then, since 1998, I have been the head nurse at the Ohel David retirement home. We started it there with the first director. My children still worked with the Jewish community. My daughter worked with the youth, so was my son. She also worked as a chairwoman in a youth organization. The son created the newspaper. He also founded Delet with Mišo Szatmáry. My daughter also worked at the Spielberg Foundation. She also organized The Spielberg Foundation in Hungary. Recordings and the like that. So we lived with it. It lived in Galanta with that. Although the synagogue was demolished, I experienced it, but it was a prayer house.

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    Komárno , 23.03.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 01:49:12
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th century
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She helped build the Ohel David Jewish Retirement Home

Witness - Judita Haasová
Witness - Judita Haasová
photo: During recording

Judita Haasová, nee Perlová, was born in 1947 in Komárno and grew up in Svätý Peter. The grandfather was a rabbi. She did not know most of the family, they died in a concentration camp during World War II. Her mother, who came from a sales family, was a primary school teacher. The father lost his parents and his first family during the war. He was a baker and had two employees. They took their bakery during nationalizing. Her father worked as a manager at a state bakery. He was honored for his liberation assistance. He was a member of the Communist Party, later was disappoint. Aunt Frida emigrated to Israel, her father’s cousin to Canada. The family moved to Komárno after the flood in 1965. In 1966 she graduated at the Secondary Medical School in Nové Zámky. She was a member of the Slovak Youth Union. After graduating at medical school, she worked for seven years in the ophthalmology department in Komárno. In 1971 she went to Galanta, where she worked at the polyclinic. She was the chairwoman of the unions. She later worked in a retirement home. She helped build the Ohel David Jewish Retirement Home in 1996 and worked there as a head nurse. When she retired, she became the vice-president of the Jewish religious community in Komárno. She has a daughter and a son.