Pavel Traubner

“From the Holocaust era I only remember how my grandfather and my mother warmed me with their own bodies; how my grandpa taught me some prayers in Hebrew. That’s what I remember until today. And actually, one more funny story I do recall. When we were riding on a big wagon, my parents didn’t know how to solve a problem with a potty pot they took for me. It kept rattling quite intensively and they didn’t know how to make it stop. It was such an experience that I learned from my parents, although I could recall pieces of it as well.”

“My parents told me, one of their most drastic experiences they had on the day when I was born. The guardsmen came to our house and searched for money, radio; they even stubbed with bayonets in the bed, where my mom way lying, and so on. The second experience they mentioned was that on the eighth day after my birth, when my mom was taking me to the outpatient clinic for examination, it was on May 9, the head of the Hlinka Guard in my native town of Ilava seized her the bunting bag I was sleeping in. He took it, although I was half naked in it, so my mother carried me home on her chest, crying. Due to that I got pneumonia when being just such a little kid. This man even gave my mother a note, he had been confiscating the furry bunting bag from her. In 1968 as a doctor – neurologist – I examined this man, however, I didn’t manage to remind him of hid deeds, since I was so embarrassed, probably much more than him.”