Rose Green - May 21, 2008
Anti-Semitism
Did you have non-Jewish friends when you lived there?
Oh yes, yes. We had very, very good friends, very good neighbors, very good friends. Yeah, very, very good. But they turned around, you know, they showed us their backs--most of them. Some of them were very good. Some of them.
Do you remember any anti-Semitism before the war started when you were a youngster?
Oh yeah, yeah. They, you know, they thought, they thought, I mean, the churches, the parents--are you Russian by any chance or Polish?
My, my father's from Russia.
From Russia. Just the name. I don't know, "Jude, Jude, Jude," you know, "Jews, Jews, Jews." We heard that, but we didn't feel it, we didn't feel it.
Nothing physical.
No, no, no. The boys sometimes, you know, boys sometimes get into, you know, in fights. But I don't remember my brother ever--he went to school right away, to gymnasium.
Do you remember the name Tiso?
Tiso?
Yeah.
Oh, sure.
What do you remember about him?
He's a stinker. He was a big fat pig. He used to come to our town, used to come to our town and get drunk and, and fooled around with, with, with the girls there. The priest--he was a priest...
A priest...
...you know. Oh, he was a stinker. And Sano Mach--do you know what--who Sano Mach was?
No.
He was one of the officials--I don't even remember what kind of official, you know, I forgot those things. But uh, Sano Mach was a big stinker. He was a very, very mean per...person.
There were Slovakian fascists.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Hitler's, Hitler's friends.
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