Magda Stančíková, rod. Biedermanová

* 1922  †︎ 2022

  • “I come from Nová Baňa and my father was an advocate. I had a nice childhood until I was sixteen years old. Nová Baňa belonged under Czechoslovakia and I attended the grammar school in Levice, because there was no such school in Nová Baňa. However, Levice were annexed to Hungary and I had to return to Nová Baňa, without being able to continue in further education. In 1938 I got married to Doctor Vojtech Stančík and then in 1942 together we fled to Hungary [Most probably, the year 1938 is not mentioned correctly, it should be year 1940, note ed.]. We ran away to Hungary and our journey was really very sorrowful. At the borders we were caught by the officials and they wanted to return us back. We begged them to let us go. Finally they agreed.”

  • “But the Budapest times were very harsh. We were there illicitly and without any means. Everyone was afraid of us, because if some Hungarian families got us, they would have been imprisoned and we sent back to Slovakia. Then the bombing came, starving, sleeping in the streets, and so on. These were very common things for us back then. It was awful.”

  • “The year 1945 came and we returned to Slovakia. My husband got a nice job and everything was all right until the Russians came. Because my husband held quite a high position, he was accused and imprisoned in a political process. So I happened to be alone again. It took three years and only after Stalin died, the prisoners could be released. Then we tried to live only common civil life, although, my husband took these sorrows very badly. He died when he was 65. And I have been more than 40 years alone.”

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    Ohel David Bratislava, 06.12.2017

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To treasure the family makes the greatest sense; the family means all and it cannot be replaced

  Magda Stančíková was born on January 1, 1922 in Nemšová and spent her childhood in Nová Baňa, in family of an attorney. In 1940 she got married to Dr. Vojtech Stančík, who was 9 years older. He was a lawyer coming from a religious Jewish family from Liptovský Mikuláš. Because of worries about their future they resorted to an idea of leaving Slovakia and taking refuge in Budapest. There they were hiding for three years and lived only from what other people secretly gave them. They came back to Slovakia after the war, however, from a large family only three members returned. Since they had no place to stay in Nová Baňa, they temporarily stayed at their friends. In the end they were able to move to Bratislava, where her husband got a good lawyer position at the Board of Commissioners. The changes occurred in 1950s. Magda‘s husband, a devoted communist holding a higher position, was during the purges in 1950 accused and sentenced for economic sabotage. He was imprisoned in Bratislava and during the long three years Mrs. Stančíková was unable to visit him. Magda lost her job, was evicted from the flat, and in the meantime, she had to take care of her terminally ill father. After the Stalin‘s death, the three-year imprisonment of her husband was finally over and he was later rehabilitated. Despite the fact the he was freed from charges, they were considered as „cadre unpersons“. When he was released from the prison, he was struck by two infarcts as an outgrowth of the war afflictions. The second infarct had fatal consequences and due to weakened health, Magda‘s husband in the age of 65 died. For Mrs. Stančíková, the years spent by the side of her husband were the most beautiful of all and probably thanks to such difficult life moments they‘d gone through together, they greatly treasured their family life.