Tereza Wiesnerová

* 1928

  • “We were taken to what was called a bath. We had to get completely naked and sit on the wooden stairs. You know, there were bedbugs that stung our buttocks. Then, still naked, we had to go up to Mengele. One of our acquaintances from Topoľčany advised us not to go one after another and not to address our mother as our mother. We did so and walked to Mengele, but anyway he pointed at our mother to go aside as she had underwent a surgery and had a scar. It was awful, mainly because we couldn’t say that it was our mother. We even couldn’t say goodbye, nothing. Our mother left us. And I was crying all the time, because I missed her a lot. Fortunately I was there with my sister. Then we got two slices of bread, the so-called dress and shoes. Well, as for the shoes, there was a big hole on the heel. We had to stand in a row and then we were transported to Bergen Belsen concentration camp. When we were standing and waiting there, I spotted my mother in the distance. Somebody gave her a red headscarf because we were bald and it was really cold. When I saw her, I stepped out from the line and I ran towards her.” “Weren’t you afraid?” “I wasn’t because I went towards my mother. We were hugging each other and crying. And then the chief of the transport came to me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid your mother will come, we will load her into the next car.’ Then I hugged her again and she said, ‘Pray for me.’ I will remember that moment forever.”

  • “Yesterday, I was in Topoľčany and I couldn’t believe my eyes because the church in the centre of a town was the only thing I was familiar with. Opposite to it, there used to be some Jewish shops and also Dudák’s gate, which I also recognised. And the town hall, where once Ďurčanský came and said, ‘Can you see it? Once, everything will be yours!’ There were not only the Jewish shops, but almost everything. Of course, they enjoyed. Then, there was a process of Aryanization. However, there were also people who were really decent and let the Jew stay there.”

  • “We had to hand over our fur coats and jewellery. And when we handed over the jewellery, we got a ring made of steel with the inscription: The Slovak State gives thanks to you. Then, my mother asked our neighbours to hide some of our things, but I remember we didn’t get anything back. My sister also had a friend from school in Nitra, her father came from Bohemia, and they brought everything back to us. We also gave something to the mother of my older sister’s friend; there were some porcelain sets, but she said that the Russians had come and taken everything away. However, it didn’t matter. We were happy to be alive. I also remember the furniture which we had in our last flat. My father’s employee along with his family moved there. They were very surprised, because there was a sofa, couch, and when we were about to be driven away, my mother quickly stuck some money between the mattresses. Later, when my sister came and took it of the sofa, that madam was really surprised! Actually, she had no idea about it till that day.”

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    V Bratislave, 20.10.2017

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I am fortunate to have a sense of humour

IMG_6756.JPG (historic)
Tereza Wiesnerová
zdroj: Marcela Glevická

Teresa Wiesnerová (nee Terézia Deutelbaum) was born on October 9, 1928 in Topoľčany as the youngest of the three sisters. Her father was a director of Agricultural Storage Cooperative. In 1940, when she was about to start attending the second year at the municipal school, she was forbidden to do so because of her Jewish origin. However, the five-year Jewish school managed to get a permission to open three more classes, so Teresa Deutelbaum was able to finish her elementary education. Later, her older sister Nela found herself in one of the first transports to Auschwitz concentration camp which was dispatched in March 1942. The rest of the family lived in Topoľčany up until the year 1944 when they were driven to the labour camp in Sereď and then, five weeks later, the whole family was transported to Auschwitz. That day it was Teresa‘s 16th birthday. When the end of the war came, Teresa was in Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany. After the camp‘s liberation by the English troops, she spent several weeks in former German barracks and infirmary near Hannover, where people were nursed because otherwise they would not be able to survive the way back to Slovakia. In 1945, Teresa and her sister went through Pilsen and Prague and managed to get to Topoľčany where there was her sister‘s husband waiting for them. They lost 27 members of their family who had lived in Topoľčany. However, due to the pogrom they decided not to settle there. Then, Teresa and her sister and brother in law moved to Komárno where Teresa met her future husband Ondrej Wiesner. In 1948 they got married, but a year later, when the communists took over the power, they moved to Israel. Later, they both lived and did their business in Nicaragua, where they spent 25 years. However, in the late 1970s after the communist coup, they fled to Maimi where they live up to the present time.