Emília Sasinová

* 1936

  • "Suddenly there was a report to Trnava: You can't have any Jews here in the morning, because there was an indication that they were hiding there and they should all taken away. So she took her child and luggage and came to Nitra. She never visited us before, but she knew our mother because she sometimes carried the money, even my father sometimes. It depended on who had time. And she came to Nitra at night. And what was in Nitra during the war? Nothing! Dead, no one at the train station. She had only our address. But she had a heavy suitcase and a kid with polio, a two-year-old who couldn't walk. So she stood there in embarrassment and didn't know what to do, and some German officer came to her and she knew German and didn't look Jewish, she was indeed very beautiful. She said she had a sister here and she came to visit her, but she changed her address and that she didn't know where the new address was and she talked to him for some time. So the officer led her to us. And when the door opened, and mom saw her with a German officer, so she started to faint. But she ran wryly to her and said:" My sister, are you surprised you haven't seen me for so long? "

  • "But these Jews were hiding. They were on the run and hid in the yard. Since there were a water-work and a pumping station, the water was pumped from the river, so there were such large pits and water channels and pipes, and as far as I know, they hid there. And they couldn't find them right away, my sister returned from of school before me, because she was younger and she had a shorter day, so she saw through the window as the officers aimed guns for her mother to tel; where the Jews were hiding. She stood by the youngest bed. What she could have said? Two stood by her, one was aiming at her and the other shouted. And that one, who was not aiming suddenly pulled aside his colleague's gun and said: "Are you blind or stupid? She has a child there, I presume you wouldn't shoot!" There were also Sona and Dudo, who was five, all of them at home. Of course, they found the Jews, and took them all away."

  • "These Jews, all from Nitra, who used to hide at our place, used to meet n secret during nights before. We had a wooden fence. Father took away two planks from it, they were lifted on such moulding and the Jews left through this opening, and not the front door. They left at night, I do not know where they were meeting. They received help there. Together, those, who had money were helping the poorer, but also some Nitran Christians. I recall some name of a person, who was in charge of this. Once they came home and that father said they met a friend, who cried he has not a cent to pay for his wife, who is hiding in the hospital in Trnava together with their daughter. She was two years old, and she caught the last wave of polio. After that, children were already receiving the vaccination. I don't know how much they had to pay, maybe 500 crowns and the man kept saying he should get caught since he doesn't know what to do. He asked whether they could send him to us. And my mother said, of course, when there's enough place for you. So he was also at our place."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Nitra, 31.01.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 01:34:23
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th century
  • 2

    Nitra, 18.07.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 01:46:16
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th century
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During the war, we were ten in an apartment. Four of that were hiding Jews, recalls Emilia Sasinova

Emilia Sasinova was born November 20, 1936, at the Slovak-Hungarian border, in the village of Manla. Together with the parents, they had to move out of their home in 1938, since they lived in the Hungarian territory after the Vienna arbitration. From the beginning of World War II, Emília was already living Nitra. In 1944, her parents were hiding a Jewish family which was on the running before the Nazi regime. Later, they also hid another Jewish man named Max. Due to an unfortunate coincidence, the Germans discovered the hiding Jews and sent them to the concentration camp. Max survived and after the war, he moved to Israel. Here, Emilia together with her siblings received recognition and thanks. Max even invited her to the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.