Mária Ševčíková

* 1935

  • "He had two brothers and one sister. So they gave him a paper where he was supposed to sign over the fields of his brother, the land of his second brother and the land of his sister as well. This way it jumped to land size of about 20 acres. He had to sign it as they held his hand to write his name down. He didn't want to, he was reluctant. However, this is how he happened to be in the cooperative at last. "

  • “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.”

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    Hlohovec, 28.07.2017

    (audio)
    duration: 01:27:22
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th century
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We suffered greatly

dobova.jpg (historic)
Mária Ševčíková
photo: archív pamätníčky

Mária Ševčíková, née Zelenayová, was born in 1935 in Hlohovec to her parents Michal and Barbora. They were rich landowners who, during the World War II, decided to help their acquaintances from Bratislava. The Stern family was at that time escaping from persecution and bombing together with two children and their grandmother. Since they were Jews, they often had to hide, but they were always able to survive thanks to Zelenays’ help. After the war, the Zelenay family was deprived of their land, which unfairly became a part of the joint agricultural cooperative. Mária’s father had to sign the document on the property nationalization under pressure. In 2009, the Zelenay family received the “Justice among the Nations” award.